Full house in Fukuoka for Tom Dean as scholar and fellow Bath-based swimmer James Guy add World freestyle relay title to Olympic crown
University of Bath-based Tom Dean and James Guy added World Championships gold to their men’s 4x200m freestyle relay Olympic title with stunning performances for British Swimming in Fukuoka, Japan.
Friday’s success saw Dean, a Bill Whiteley Sporting Scholar at the University, complete a full house of medals this week, adding to his individual 200m freestyle silver and 200m individual medley bronze.
After strong opening legs from Duncan Scott and Matt Richards, who were also in the victorious Tokyo 2020 quartet, Guy took over in the lead and maintained that advantage before Dean brought Britain home in style with a scorching last leg of 1:43.84.
The moment of becoming World Champions👑🌎
What a final leg (and celebration🤩) from @tomdean00 🔥🔥🔥
(🎥:https://t.co/23o82ZzWxE) https://t.co/CRY8gXiyfL pic.twitter.com/Zd9HSIYdmg
— British Swimming (@britishswimming) July 28, 2023
“I knew that when the four boys came together, something special would happen like it did last time we were in Japan.“ said Dean who, along with Guy, is coached by David McNulty at the British Swimming Performance Centre based at the Team Bath Sports Training Village.
Guy, celebrating the 11th World Championships medal of his career, added: “Winning tonight was really, really nice. This is our first time racing together since Tokyo and it shows that we’re in a great place, hopefully we can build on that for Paris.”
Dean had gone mighty close to adding the individual 200m freestyle title to his Olympic crown earlier in the week, being pipped to gold in a sensational final by just two-hundredths of a second by former training partner Richards.
He was back on the podium on Thursday, once again displaying his freestyle pedigree as a fantastic last leg brought him through the field to claim 200m IM bronze behind winner Leon Marchand and GB team-mate Scott.
Performance Centre Bath swimmer Jacob Peters was denied his first individual World Championships medal by the narrowest of margins in the 50m butterfly, his time of 22.84 – a new personal best – being two-hundredths of a second shy of third place. University of Bath Swimming Club’s Ben Proud was just seven-hundredths of a second further back in sixth.
Peters was also part of the GB mixed 4x100m medley relay quartet that finished fifth along with University of Bath alumna Anna Hopkin.
There were two fourth-placed finishes for Performance Centre Bath swimmer Freya Anderson in the women’s 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relay events, Hopkin joining her in the first race as the quartet set a new British record of 3:33.90.
There are more medal prospects over the weekend, with two more days of competition remaining in Fukuoka.
Click here to find out more about the swimming programme at the University of Bath, including the public swim-fit timetable for the Olympic-sized pool.
