Renshaw and O'Connor win gold in Rome

25 Jun 2017

Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and Molly Renshaw won a gold medal apiece on the final night of the Seven Hills meet as British swimmers left Rome with a haul of 17 medals.

O’Connor added gold in the 200m Individual Medley to the 100m Breaststroke title she won on Friday while Renshaw claimed a late win in the 200m Breaststroke.

Charlotte Atkinson took silver in the 200m Butterfly and there were bronze medals for Ben Proud in the 50m Butterfly and Luke Greenbank in the 200m Backstroke.

It meant British swimmers finished the three-day meet at the Foro Italico with seven gold, four silver and six bronze medals as they move into the final stage of their preparations for the World Championships in Budapest in July.

O’Connor led from start to finish to claim victory in the short medley, the Olympic silver medallist recording a season’s best to give her confidence after a spell interrupted by illness.

The Bath NTC swimmer will head to Budapest as the Olympic silver medallist where she will face home favourite and Rio champion Katinka Hosszu.

“I would have loved to have just dipped under the 2:10, that would have been nice but a 2:10 after the block of work I’ve had, I’m pretty happy with that and hopefully with a bit of rest I can drop another couple of seconds for Budapest and then I’ll be really happy,” she said.

O’Connor was boosted by twice standing atop the podium in Rome, saying: “It’s the confidence as well and the race practice.

“The confidence I’ve got from the wins is great but it’s also the practice which is really important and trying to put in the process and things like that.”

Olympic finalist Renshaw executed a tactically-astute race, only taking the lead with five metres remaining.

“My goal going into that was to build through the race. I think in Rio it was the last 50 where I kind of lost it so I have been working a lot in training to kind of come back as strong as I can and so putting that into a race was good practice.”

Of Budapest, she said: “I just want to go there and I feel I know what I am capable of this season so I have just set goals with my coach and if I can achieve them I will be over the moon.”

Jocelyn Ulyett and Abbie Wood were sixth and eighth respectively.

Atkinson took silver in the 200m Butterfly. She will make her senior Great Britain debut in Hungary and said: “I’ve been to Thailand, Japan, Rome – it’s been so good since making the worlds team, so exciting.

“I am not going in with any pressure on myself. I am just going to go in, enjoy it and see what the outcome is.”

Proud added 50m Butterfly bronze to the silver he won in the 50m Freestyle on Friday.

“I am very happy,” he said. “I can’t think of many times I have gone faster than that in season so I am more happy with the process.

“I managed to get by as I meant to do on the day and over the next four weeks the rest is going to take care of the rest.”

Greenbank won bronze in the first event of the night, coming from seventh at the final turn to blast down the last 50.

Greenbank, who trains under Mel Marshall at the National Centre Loughborough, was selected for the World Championships and today’s performance was an indication he is heading in the right direction although his main focus is on the Olympics in 2020.

He said: “That was really good, I am pleased. It was my fastest untapered swim. I am in a good position as there is not really any pressure on me. I am still young, there is time to get experience. I am looking more to Tokyo.”

Other results saw Jessica Fullalove finish fourth in the 200m Backstroke with Rosie Rudin and Charlotte Evans sixth and eighth respectively.

Max Litchfield and Mark Szaranek were fourth and eighth in the 200m Individual Medley while Duncan Scott and Ross Murdoch finished fifth in the 100m Freestyle and 200m Breaststroke respectively.