Graduate Andrew Willis through to third World Swimming Championships final
University of Bath graduate Andrew Willis will contest his third successive FINA World Championships final in Kazan, Russia on Friday after impressing in the heats and semis.
Willis, who completed his Chemical Engineering degree this summer, was second-fastest in the 200m breaststroke heats on Thursday morning.
He then clocked 2:08.72 – just outside his personal best – in the semi-finals to progress as fifth quickest.
Having finished eighth in Shanghai in 2011 and fourth in Barcelona two years ago, Willis – also a finalist at the London 2012 Olympic Games – will be looking to get on the podium when the final takes place on Friday afternoon.
Willis is coached by Dave McNulty and Graeme Antwhistle at the British Swimming National Centre Bath, which can already boast three medals this week.
Siobhan-Marie O’Connor has two of them – bronze in the 200m individual medley and gold in the mixed 4x100m medley relay, along with Chris Walker-Hebborn.
O’Connor narrowly missed out on a third medal on Thursday evening in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, along with training partner Jazz Carlin.
A strong first leg saw O’Connor hand over in fourth place to Carlin, who then produced a well-judged swim to overtake her Chinese opponent and move into bronze-medal position.
Rebecca Turner maintained that but Hannah Miley wasn’t quite able to hold on in the final leg as Britain finished fifth in 7:50.60. Gold went to the United States.
