13th Wold Swimming Championship

Rome 2009 confirmed as most successful FINA World Swimming Championships ever for Great Britain
The British Gas swimming team have finished their most successful World Championships ever as runners up to the USA and Australia in the overall points table.

The highlights for the British Team in the pool included two gold medals. Gemma Spofforth claimed gold in the 100m Backstroke in a new World Record time while Liam Tancock also set new world figures on his way to securing the Men’s 50m Backstroke title. Jo Jackson also performed well securing two silver medals in the Women’s 400m and 800m Freestyle.

Michael Scott, British Swimming National Performance Director said: “It shows the depth of the British squad after a fantastic week of swimming, results and medal winning performances. We’ve had more medallists than ever before, coupled with more finalists than ever before. But our challenge now is to convert those finalists into medallists.

“It shows British Swimming is closer than ever before to the mark laid down by the biggest and most successful swimming nations. However there is still a lot of work to be done as we pursue our goals for London 2012.”

Keri-Anne Payne also added to British success outside of the pool in taking gold in the Women’s 10km Open Water event. The full points table follows below:

1. USA 820
2. Australia 568
3. Great Britain 468
4. Germany 340
5. China 3376. Russia 306
7. France 303
7. Japan 303
9. Brazil 300
10. Italy 297