James Guy landed Great Britain’s first swimming medal of the Kazan 2015 World Championships on the opening night in Russia.
The 20-year old set a British record 3:43.75 to claim the first World medal of his career with silver, touching 1.17 seconds behind China’s Olympic and defending World champion Sun Yang.
Having qualified second-fastest for the final, the Brit – who finished fifth in this event on his World debut two years ago – took the race out, maintaining a pace over the first 300m that only Sun could keep up with.
The Chinese swimmer ultimately pulled clear in the final 50m but Guy held off Canada’s Commonwealth champion Ryan Cochrane to become the first British man to win a World Championship 400m Freestyle medal since Paul Palmer’s bronze in 1998.
“Everyone wants to win obviously but I can’t be happier to win a medal at the World Championships – I’m over the moon with that one,” said Guy.
“I tried to race that from the start and back-end it. Sun Yang is a distance swimmer so he has more endurance than I do so my best chance was to go out hard and try and hold on.
“It was stroke for stroke and that’s what it will be like next year as well, maybe with a couple more guys in there so that will be the big one.
“I know there’s more there as well – I died a little bit on the back 50m so that’s something to work on for next year.”
Jazz Carlin was just 0.4 seconds shy of claiming a second medal for Great Britain in the women’s 400m Freestyle.
The European champion came storming back in the last two lengths, clocking the fastest final 100m of anyone in the field, but found the wall come to soon as she finished fourth with Australia’s Jessica Ashwood taking bronze behind USA’s Katie Ledecky and the Netherlands’ Sharon Van Rouwendaal.
“I gave it my best shot,” said Carlin, who also finished fourth in the 400m Freestyle at the 2013 World Championships.
“When you get to a World Championship, you’re really racing the best in the world. That was my best today and to come fourth is really disappointing.
“I would have loved to be on the podium but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
“I’ve got a few days off now so it will be nice to get a few days rest and move on ready for the 800m.”
There were some promising semi-final performances from the British team as five swimmers booked final berths for tomorrow.
World record holder Adam Peaty qualified fastest for the 100m Breaststroke final, setting a Championship record 58.18 to progress with South Africa’s Olympic champion Cameron Van Der Burgh his nearest rival, 0.31 seconds slower.
“I’m going out there and enjoying it here,” said Peaty, who is competing at his debut World Championships in Russia.
“I’m not feeling any pressure – there’s nothing. I’m going out down that first 50m and enjoying it.
“It doesn’t quite feel like a World Championships and I think that’s a good thing because I’m able to stay so chilled. But tomorrow is going to be a really good race.
“My strength is my back end so I’ve worked a lot on my front end so I can take it out easy and come back strong. The final tomorrow is going to take a lot of effort down the first 50m and a lot of effort down the back 50m but hopefully there’s something in there.”
Ross Murdoch, who won European silver behind Peaty 12 months ago, also qualified for the final, touching fourth in his heat and eighth overall.
Siobhan-Marie O’Connor set her sights on a maiden World Champs medal as she dominated her 200m Individual Medley semi-final.
The 19-year old touched more than 1.5 seconds clear in her semi to progress second fastest with Hannah Miley joining her as seventh fastest qualifier.
Commonwealth champion Ben Proud booked a spot in his first World final, touching second in his semi and sixth overall in the 50m Butterfly while Rachael Kelly missed out on the 100m Butterfly final by just 0.22 seconds as she placed 12th from the semis.