Van Der Merwe and Glenister open medal account at Junior World Champs

Michaella Glenister led the charge on day one in Budapest, producing a personal best to qualify second fastest for the Women’s 400m Individual Medley final before slicing even more time off to win a bronze medal in a time of 4:39.35 – a whole eight seconds quicker than Glenister’s lifetime best prior to the meet, which was set at the British Summer Championships in July.

The Leicester Sharks swimmer has a packed schedule this week and on back of the high of her opening day medal Glenister returned for the women’s 800m Freestyle along with Rachel Anderson. Whilst both swimmers were short of the medals the pair each delivered personal bests, Glenister again knocking a huge eight seconds off, with Anderson beating her own previous marker by two seconds.

Commenting on her achievement Michaella Glenister said:

"Coming into the meet I definitely wasn't expecting to achieve what I have done. To make the final with that first PB I was so pleased, so to go faster again and top that off with the bronze medal is a bit surreal.

I really think the team environment and spirit here has spurred me on and I just want to see how well I can do in my upcoming races." 

Britain’s further podium success came in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke as Kayla Van Der Merwe picked up a world junior silver medal in style. Having cruised through the rounds the preceding day, Van Der Merwe returned for the final on Wednesday afternoon and clocked a new British age group record of 30.91 as she stormed home for her medal, touching the wall just 0.01 seconds ahead of bronze.

The strong finish will no doubt add confidence to Van Der Merwe as the 16 year old next contests the women’s 100m Breaststroke event in which she won her Junior European title earlier this year.

Archie Goodburn also impressed for Great Britain in reaching the men’s 100m Breaststroke final. The Warrander Baths club swimmer produced his fastest time in the semi-final but a good performance resulted in joint fifth position overall.

Across the both the men’s and women’s 100m Backstroke there was also promising signs for Charlie Brown, Pia Murray and Honey Osrin. With all three making their respective semi-finals, each swimmer improved on times produced in the heats, but were just shy of progressing further.