Are there any words for what we witnessed on the final night in Rome. The swimming was spectacular throughout the whole week and the Loughborough swimmers secured more medals than ever before at a World Championships. The evening started with Liam Tancock becoming World Champion in the 50m back and setting his second World record in two days with a time of 24.04.(To watch the race from the BBC website click here)
Fran Halsall had secured a place in the women's 50m free final by breaking her own British record. In the final she was in lane 1 of a very strong filed including the Olympic Champion. Fran swam a superb race to nearly sneak a medal, eventually finishing in 5th place setting another new British record time of 24.11.
In the men's 1500m David Davies, viliantly tried to hold pace with the leaders throughout the first half of the race. He gradually drifted off the pace and finished in 6th place in a time of 14.57.03.
In the final event of the meet, Liam Tancock and James Gibson joined forces with Michael Rock(Stockport) and Simon Burnett(Arizona) to compete in the 4 x 100 medley relay. Tancock had not long previous swam the 50m back and suffered a little with the effects of that swim on the first leg. The team struggled overall to match the British record that they had set in the morning heats and eventually finished in 8th place. As the times were confirmed the GB team were disqualified for a faulty fly takeover.