Double European silver helps sporting scholar Kate Shortman maintain medal momentum ahead of Paris 2024 Olympic Games
There was another two-medal haul for University of Bath sporting scholar Kate Shortman and artistic swimming partner Izzy Thorpe as they continued their Paris 2024 Olympic Games preparations at the European Championships.
Shortman and Thorpe secured silver in both the Tech Duet and Free Duet competitions in Belgrade, following on from their silver and bronze at the World Championships in February and Tech Duet gold at last month’s Olympic Test Event in Paris.
“If someone told us 12 months ago that you’d come second at Europeans twice, it would literally be a dream come true,” said Thorpe. “We’ve trained so hard and I’m really happy that we have come second, but it’s not the end of our season – we’ve still got the Olympics to go.”
Two more medals to start the final day 👍🫶
Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe win 🥈 in the Technical Duet whilst Ranjuo Tomblin and Beatrice Crass earn 🥉 in the Mixed Technical Duet 👏
The 🇬🇧 Free Team rounds out the #ArtisticSwimming action from 3:30pm ➡️ https://t.co/X1czTXDXlx pic.twitter.com/18YQ4xfN5F
— Swim England (@Swim_England) June 14, 2024
Shortman – who studies International Management and Modern Languages (French) at the University and is supported by a Bill Whiteley Scholarship – and Thorpe are now beginning their final training block ahead of the Games at their Hengrove training base in Bristol.
Sports Performance student Robyn Swatman was also on the podium in Belgrade as she teamed up with Lily Halasi, Florence Blinkhorn, Amelie Williams, Sophie Rowney, Holly Hughes, Eve Young and Eleanor Blinkhorn to win bronze in the Free Team contest.
That result meant the Aquatics GB team left Belgrade with medals across solo, duet, mixed duet and team events, the first time that has ever happened for a British team at this level.
Back on a European podium 👊 🔥
Great Britain’s Free Team take bronze to win the nation’s first European team medal since 1985! 🥉
The result means that 🇬🇧’s artistic swimmers end the @EuroAquatics Championships with a record haul of 7️⃣ medals 👏 pic.twitter.com/1GyRbb651w
— Swim England (@Swim_England) June 14, 2024
The pool competition is now under way in Belgrade with four University of Bath-based swimmers Ed Mildred, Matthew Ward and students Joshua Gammon and Jack Skerry representing GB.
Follow Bath-based athletes on the road to Paris 2024 at teambath.com/Paris2024.
Picture credit: Team GB.
