Caitlin McClatchey got Britain off to a great start in Montreal as she took a thrilling bronze medal in the women’s 400m freestyle. The Loughborough university swimmer qualified in 5th position for the final, but produced a well paced swim to improve her placing to the medal positions. McClatchey started steadily vying for third place with Brittany Reimer and Camille Potec. At the 300m turn her two rivals had gained a slender advantage, but McClatchey produced a sizzling last 100m split of 1:01.00, the fastest in the field, to snatch third place at the touch by just 0.07s from Reimer. The result is all the more remarkable given that this is McClatchey’s first season as a 400m swimmer and bodes well for her swim over 200m later in this championship.
France’s Laure Manadou was the runaway winner, taking the race out hard and never being headed as she took gold in 4:06.44. Japan’s Ai Shibata took silver. Meanwhile Britain’s other representative in the final, Jo Jackson had to settle for 7th place in a time of 4:08.88.
Elsewhere it was a day of mixed fortunes for Britain’s swimmers. In the Men’s 100m breaststroke, Chris Cook bettered his personal best in both the heats and semi final as he qualified 5th for tomorrow’s final in 1:00.64. Before the day started he had never swum under 1:01, so to achieve the feat in both swims was an encouraging performance for the Newcastle swimmer.
There was no such joy for Darren Mew who was well off the pace in his heat, clocking 1:02.4, over 2 seconds outside his best, to miss out on a semi final position. David Carry was another whose challenge ended in the heats, as he missed the final of the 400m freestyle, again swimming well outside his best set at the Stage 3 meet in Swansea.
Britain’s other competitor on Day One, Ros Brett, acquitted herself better in the 100m butterfly. Brett scraped into the semi finals of the event, posting 1:00.34 in the heats, but couldn’t improve her performance in the evening, finishing in 15th place in 1:00.36.