Duo help Team GB secure Paris 2024 relay spot as University of Bath students compete at 2024 World Swimming Championships in Doha
It was a job well done by University of Bath-based swimmers Tom Dean and Jacob Whittle on Sunday as they helped secure a men’s 4x100m freestyle relay place for Team GB at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
In their only appearance at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, the duo teamed up with Duncan Scott and Matt Richards to safely rubber-stamp the quota spot with a time of 3:13.96 in the morning heats.
The quartet narrowly missed on a medal in the final as they finished fourth but the focus all along was Paris after British Swimming had failed to register a time at the 2023 event in Japan following a disqualification.
“It is eyes on the big one in terms of that relay now, swimming it at Paris, but before that it’s trials at the British Championships,” said Dean who, like Whittle, is part of the British Swimming Performance Centre Bath squad coached by David McNulty. “That’s the first stepping stone but we got the job done this morning.”
Training partner Brodie Williams is the other Bath Performance Centre swimmer in action this week, lining up in the 200m backstroke on Thursday.
Also competing at the World Championships are three Bath students who train with Mark Skimming and Andrei Vorontsov in the University’s swimming club.
Luis Weekes (Data Science), Ridhwan Mohamed (Automotive Engineering with Business Management) and Henrique Mascarenhas (Chemical Engineering) are representing Barbados, Kenya and Angola respectively.
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.
Top picture: (From left) Tom Dean, Jacob Whittle, Duncan Scott and Matt Richards celebrate after securing Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualification in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. CREDIT: British Swimming.
