Rachael Kelly ensured she will enjoy her forthcoming holiday all the more after the Shropshire swimmer grabbed herself a bronze medal at the World University Games in Chinese Taipei.
Competing in the women’s 100m butterfly final on Thursday, Loughborough student Kelly touched the wall and edged out Dutch rival Kinge Zandringa.
Gold went to American Hellen Moffitt while Italy’s Elena Di Liddo was second behind the new World University Games (WUGS) champion
The 2017 World University Games are taking place from August 19-30 with athletes coming together to compete at what is the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympics.
Kelly’s medal was the third won by the British team so far – and third in the pool – with Joe Litchfield taking 200m individual medley bronze on Tuesday and Jay Lelliott winning silver in the 400m freestyle on Sunday.
“I’m really happy to come away with a medal. The time isn’t quite what I wanted but I got a medal so I’m pretty happy,” said Kelly who was making her WUGS debut.
“My tactics were to relax on the first 50m which I did. I went out pretty good. It was a bit unfortunate that I couldn’t back it up with the second 50m but I went a bit quicker than my semi so I progressed through my heats so that was good.
“I’m actually flying straight to Singapore from here to go on holiday so that will be a nice four weeks off.”