There were further golden moments for Plymouth at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha on Thursday. Following Tom Daley’s gold and silver medals last week, swimmer Laura Stevens won her first world title in the women’s 200m butterfly, followed by Aidan Heslop’s gold medal in the high diving.
The 24-year-old swimmer won gold in a time of 2.07.35 seconds, becoming the first British woman to win an individual world championship since 2011. Heslop then won the gold medal at her world championships by completing the toughest dive ever seen. medal.
No British woman has won an individual world title since Rebecca Adlington in 2011, but Stevens’ victory makes her the first British woman to win a world medal in the 200m butterfly event. This was also Britain’s first swimming gold medal at the Qatar Championships.
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Stephens, who moved to Plymouth at the age of 14 and swam for Plymouth Leander and studied architectural engineering at Plymouth University, won silver in the same event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, but is still in the world. He had never won a championship. Previous championship medal.
“I can’t believe it. With 50 meters to go all I was thinking was holding on,” Laura said. She led the race from start to finish, but pushed hard with 50 meters to go, ahead of Denmark’s Helena Bach, who took second place with a time of 2:07.44, and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Lana Pudal (third place). 2 minutes, 7.92 seconds).
“I think we did well. It’s all about the Olympics this summer and we’re still working towards that, which is great, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Stevens said.
In high diving, which is not an Olympic sport, Aidan Heslop of Great Britain, who is training in Plymouth, completed the toughest dive in the history of the world championships and won his first world title.
The 21-year-old earned 151.90 points for his final jump from the 27-meter platform, giving him a total of 422.95 points, ahead of France’s Gary Hunt (silver with 413.25 points) and Catalin-Petr Preda (bronze with 410.20 points). won the gold medal.
“It’s pretty good. [being called world champion],” he said. “The diving wasn’t what I was looking for, especially on the first day, but today I finished my last dive as it should most of the time. It was pretty steady today. A big dive, that’s all you need to get to the top of the podium.
“I’m really, really happy, but I’m sure there’s still a lot of work to do. This dive has brought me both joy and sadness in different competitions. This week has been good and I hope you have too. I was really nervous at the top, but I knew what I had to do.The two workouts I did this week were also really great.
“Actually, I think this was probably the worst of the three, but as long as it’s good enough to get me to the top of the podium, I’m happy with it for now!”
Heslop’s drive to perform ever more difficult dives with his fellow high divers is pushing this great sport to new heights, and he hopes it can continue.
Heslop, who recently finished second in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, said: “It’s fun to be at the forefront of some of the biggest dives people are doing these days. It’s risky, but it’s fun.”
“We’re throwing these big dives, but most of the time we’re within our limits and we know what that is. But when it comes to delivering on our competitors, That’s a completely different story. I really like the position I’m in now and what I’m doing to contribute to the development of the sport and the greater development of diving.”
More medals could be on the way for Plymouth as Ben Proud begins his 50m freestyle campaign in the pool on Friday.