Relay gold for Bath graduate Calum Jarvis at World Swimming Championships
University of Bath graduate Calum Jarvis struck gold at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Kazan, Russia on Friday as part of an outstanding British 4x200m freestyle relay quartet.
The Sports Performance graduate, swimming in leg three, started in third place after good work by Dan Wallace and Robbie Renwick.
He swam superbly to maintain that position before handing over to individual champion James Guy, who produced a phenomenal final leg to overhaul the United States and Russia to take gold in 7:04.33.
Jarvis is the third University of Bath-based swimmer to win relay gold this week, following a world-record performance from Chris Walker-Hebborn and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor in the mixed 4x100m medley.
Chemical Engineering graduate Andrew Willis had earlier finished fourth at a second successive World Championships after an impressive performance in the 200m breaststroke final.
Willis – who, like Jarvis, trains with the British Swimming National Centre Bath – was just five-hundredths of a second off his personal best as he touched the wall in 2:08.47.
He swam a well-paced race to stay with the leading pack throughout and passed Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki in the last 50m but couldn’t quite reel in the front three.
Gold went to Germany’s Marco Koch, silver to Kevin Cortes of the USA and bronze to Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta, the London 2012 Olympic champion.
Willis also finished just off the podium at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona, Spain but felt this was a better performance.
“I have mixed emotions about that,” he said. “I don’t feel as gutted as last time because I feel like I progressed through the rounds and had three good swims.”
Lizzie Simmonds – a British Swimming University of Bath scholar – was 12th fastest overall in the 200m backstroke semi-finals in a time of 2:10.57.
