National Centre Bath swimmers Calum Jarvis and James Guy help GB to relay gold at Glasgow 2018 European Champions
University of Bath-based Calum Jarvis and James Guy helped GB strike gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay on a super Sunday night for British Swimming at the Glasgow 2018 European Championships.
Sports Performance graduate Jarvis got the final off to a strong start as he finished the first leg in second place before handing over to Duncan Scott who, fresh from winning 100m freestyle silver earlier in the evening, forged into the lead.
Tom Dean maintained Britain’s advantage before Guy – who, like Jarvis, is a member of the British Swimming National Centre Bath – brought Britain home in first place in a championship record time of 7:05.32, more than a second clear of nearest challengers Russia. Italy took bronze.
Jarvis, coached by Jol Finck at the London 2012 Legacy Pool, told BBC Sport: “There’s always huge pressure going off first but I think I handled it well tonight and got the team off to a good start.”
Guy pulled out of the 200m butterfly final to focus on the relay and said: “Doing both races would have been suicide, there would have been no time to rest between them. It was a great swim by the team, onwards and upwards.”
Fellow National Centre Bath swimmer Cameron Kurle had earlier helped Britain qualify for the final with victory in their heat. He had also been part of the mixed 4x200m freestyle relay team in the heats on Saturday, earning Britain a place in the final where they won bronze.
The opening night of competition at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre saw MJ Church Ambassador Anna Hopkin, a recent Sport & Exercise Science graduate coached by Mark Skimming, and National Centre Bath swimmer Siobhan-Marie O’Connor narrowly miss out on a medal in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay.
They swam the first two legs for a British quartet that also included Eleanor Faulkner and Freya Anderson, who wasn’t quite able to overhaul third-placed Denmark in a storming last leg. France narrowly took gold ahead of the Netherlands.
O’Connor, coached by David McNulty, also qualified for the women’s 100m breaststroke final on Sunday, where she finished fifth in 1:07.30. The heats for her main event, the 200m individual medley, begin on Tuesday.
The synchonised swimming competition saw Team Bath Synchro Club’s Ilaria Brandimarte, on her British debut, help GB finish ninth overall in the Team Free Routine final on Saturday.
Their tribal-themed routine earned a score of 78.9333, an improvement on their total in the previous day’s qualifying heats. Russia, Ukraine and Italy took the podium places.
The European Rowing Championships, also taking place in Scotland, saw Biology graduate Sara Parfett – who started her rowing career on the GB Rowing Team Start programme at the University – finish just outside the medals in the women’s four final.
Parfett, Caragh McMurtry, Emily Ashford and Josephine Wratten won their repechage on Friday but had to settle for fourth place in the final in 6:45.48. Russia, Romania and Poland made up the top three.
The multi-sport European Championships continue throughout this week, with the athletics competition getting under way in Berlin today (Monday).
Sixteen University of Bath-based sportspeople and a further five alumni are competing across the various sports. Click here to see who is competing and when.
Thank you to British Swimming for the top picture of James Guy (left) and Calum Jarvis (right) on the podium with their GB team-mates with their 4x200m freestyle relay gold medals.
