logo
Swimmer Bown wins three Island Games gold medals

Swimmer Bown wins three Island Games gold medals

BBC News14-07-2025
Guernsey's Chloe Bown won three gold medals at she impressed on the first day of swimming at the 2023 Island Games.Bown won gold in the 200m freestyle, 400m individual medley and 4x50m freestyle relay.Bown shattered the Island Games record for the 400m individual medley swimming in a time of 4:43.96 - beating the 14-year-old mark set by Isle of Man's former Great Britain swimmer Charlotte Atkinson in 2011. Teammate Oriana Wheeler won silver as she finished more than six seconds behind.In the 200m freestyle Bown's time of 2:00.47 was four-and-a-half seconds ahead of Faroe Islands' silver medallist Alisa Vestergard.And Bown was part of the relay team alongside the experienced trio of Molly Staples, Tatiana Tostevin and Orla Rabey that took gold by almost a second from Aland.
Rabey - swimming at her final Island Games after a glittering career that has seen her win 22 medals over the previous three Island Games, including eight golds, added another individual medal to her collection.The 23-year-old came second in the 100m butterfly as she lost out to Cayman Islands' Sierrah Broadbelt by 0.26 seconds.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Summer McIntosh wins third gold of swimming worlds as Marchand dazzles
Summer McIntosh wins third gold of swimming worlds as Marchand dazzles

The Guardian

time4 hours ago

  • The Guardian

Summer McIntosh wins third gold of swimming worlds as Marchand dazzles

Summer McIntosh came within a whisker of breaking a long-standing world record and Léon Marchand failed to improve on a new mark he set just a night earlier, but both young guns won gold medals at the world championships in Singapore on Thursday. Romania's David Popovici also flirted with a record on day five at the World Aquatics Championships Arena, the 20-year-old claiming a thrilling 100 metres freestyle gold to go with his 200 crown on day three. The 200 butterfly world record of 2:01.81 set by China's Liu Zige in 2009 is the last surviving mark from the supersuit era in women's swimming – and McIntosh all but took it down. The schedule The swimming portion of the World Aquatics Championships takes place from 27 July through 3 August at the Singapore Sports Hub. The heats start at 10am local time (2am GMT, 10pm ET). The semi-finals and finals start at 7pm local time (11am GMT, 7am ET). The full schedule is available in PDF format or on the World Aquatics website. How to watch In the United States, coverage will be available on NBC and streaming service Peacock. In the United Kingdom, Aquatics GB holds the UK rights to stream events. In Australia, the Nine Network will provide broadcast coverage throughout the championships. In Canada, events will be broadcast live on CBC, with streaming options via CBC digital platforms. For other countries and full international broadcast listings, visit the World Aquatics broadcast page. Additionally, the World Aquatics Recast channel will re-air all sessions of the meet, heats and finals for a fee. She stormed to her third individual gold medal of the meet in 2:01.99, the second-fastest swim of all time and a yawning three seconds better than American silver medallist Regan Smith. Having made the last turn under world record pace the Canadian 18-year-old flagged slightly coming home and shouted an expletive when she spied the clock. 'I know that I messed up the last 15 metres of my race,' she said. 'Overall, happy with the time and a PB, but I didn't reach my goal tonight.' 3 races, 3 GOLDS for Summer McIntosh after a win in the 200m butterfly.📺: Peacock | #AQUASingapore25 China's 12-year-old marvel Yu Zidi finished just off the podium again having also placed fourth in the 200 IM. McIntosh might console herself in the knowledge that her bid for five individual titles remains intact, with the 400 IM and a hugely anticipated showdown with American great Katie Ledecky in the 800 freestyle still to come. Only Michael Phelps has won five individual golds at a world championships. Marchand, dubbed the French Phelps", celebrated a world record on Wednesday when he blitzed the long-standing 200 IM mark of Ryan Lochte with an incredible swim of 1:52.69 in the semi-finals. With victory seemingly assured in the final the only suspense was whether Marchand might reset his world record from the previous night but he ended up nearly a second short, with a time of 1:53.68. It was still the second fastest swim ever and led to a dominant win by 0.62 seconds ahead of American Shaine Casas and Hungarian Hubert Kos. Marchand said the record may have taken a bit out of him but he was hardly complaining. 'I felt so excited yesterday that I couldn't sleep,' he said. 'So I think I lost a lot of energy yesterday night, but it was my goal to break the record, so I was really happy with it.' Popovici then emerged the winner of a sensational men's 100 freestyle final, clocking 46.51 to give Pan Zhanle's world record (46.40) a big scare. American runner-up Jack Alexy also broke the 47-second barrier (46.92), while Paris Games silver medallist Kyle Chalmers took the bronze for Australia. At 20, 200 Olympic champion Popovici has already completed the 100-200 sweep twice at world championships, having done the double at Budapest three years ago. The relaxed Romanian said he had reached a higher plain; no longer worried about winning or losing. 'I just feel very relieved that this huge pressure of being afraid of winning or losing is off me,' he said. 'I don't mean it in an arrogant way, I mean it in a self-maturing way.' The United States celebrated a fourth gold in the meet as Katharine Berkoff won the 50 backstroke in 27.08 seconds, edging compatriot Smith. In the finale of Thursday's programme, Australia's women clinched a second relay gold as Mollie O'Callaghan held off Ledecky in a thrilling final leg to guide her 4x200 freestyle relay team over the finish line. Australia also won the men's and women's 4x100 freestyle golds on Sunday. O'Callaghan, whose 11th gold tied her with Ian Thorpe as the most successful Australian at the world championships, will now look to add the 100 freestyle title to her 200 crown on Friday. Medals will also be decided in the men's 200 breaststroke, 200 backstroke and 4x200 freestyle relay, as well as the women's 200 breaststroke.

Lauren Cox determined to make Olympic history after Paris heartbreak
Lauren Cox determined to make Olympic history after Paris heartbreak

Times

time6 hours ago

  • Times

Lauren Cox determined to make Olympic history after Paris heartbreak

A year ago, a heartbroken Lauren Cox almost quit the sport she loved because the Olympic Games had no home for a sprint backstroke specialist like her. If freestyle had been her thing, she would have travelled to Paris last summer as big a medal hope as Ben Proud, who claimed silver in the Olympic 50 metres freestyle. At the world championships in Singapore on Thursday, Cox, 23, fell only 0.06sec shy of a medal in the 50m backstroke, finishing fifth. Her career was back on track in a new era that will no longer cut her out of the Olympics. The 50m freestyle was added to the Games in 1988 in the belief that a one-length sprint would add a glamorous thrill, but there was no room for 50m events for any other stroke. This was still the case in Paris last year, when Cox just failed to earn selection in the 100m event. Ian Hulme, her coach at Loughborough at the time, eventually persuaded Cox to return to the pool but she agreed only on the understanding that she would only swim for fun. Her Loughborough team-mate Adam Peaty understood Cox's dilemma — he was a triple world champion, as well as a record-holder, in the 50m breaststroke — but his only Olympic target as a sprinter was the 100m. He told Cox to hang on, appointed her as an ambassador to his AP Race business and made it clear that he would be up for a comeback for Los Angeles 2028 if 50m events were added to the programme. On April 9, Olympic chiefs announced they would be. Peaty declared, 'I'll be there!', and so did Cox. 'I remember that moment and feeling so well,' Cox said. 'I can finally talk about it now without crying. I remember touching the wall [in the 100m at trials] and knowing that was it. I was out. I felt like I had let everyone down and I just wanted to burst into tears. It was awful. Heartbreaking.' Only six weeks after the good news, Cox broke the British 50m backstroke record in 27.15 at the AP Race International in London. 'I just love the 50s; instead of just going and getting the T-shirt I can be an Olympic finalist or medallist, which is exciting.' The swimming will take place in a temporary pool sunk into SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Los Angeles, with 38,000 spectators, by far the biggest capacity for swimming at the Olympics. Meanwhile Cox's fifth-place finish has only been bettered by one British swimmer at these championships — Duncan Scott, who finished a solid fourth in the 200m medley. Ahead of him, in a class of his own, was France's four-times Olympic champion Léon Marchand, who annihilated the world record on Tuesday in 1min 52.69sec. He was slower for gold on Thursday, finishing ahead of the USA's Shaine Casas and Hungary's Hubert Kos. Meanwhile, the Canadian triple Olympic champion Summer McIntosh collected her third gold, in the 200m butterfly, with a spectacular competition record of 2:01.99 on Thursday, and has two more golden targets ahead. Saturday brings the 18-year-old's highly anticipated clash with the unbeaten American distance legend Katie Ledecky in the 800m, before she concludes her championships in the 400m medley the following day — an event that will almost certainly end with gold for the Canadian. Yu Zidi, the Chinese 12-year-old, will be in that race, too, having finished fourth behind McIntosh in the 200m medley and 200m butterfly. Whatever happens on Sunday, she will go home the youngest-ever medallist at the world championships as China took bronze in the 4x200m freestyle, granting heats swimmer Yu a medal. For Cox, though, there is added motivation to get on the podium in LA. Her fifth place may not have been as good as the bronze she won at the world championships two years ago, but it has given her the belief that she belongs. 'I thought after the 2023 medal that it could be a fluke. I just need more confidence and belief in myself. I doubt myself a lot… so it's nice to see that I'm still up there with the best and three years to get ready' to make Olympic history.

'We'll always have Paris' - Olympic memories one year on
'We'll always have Paris' - Olympic memories one year on

BBC News

time12 hours ago

  • BBC News

'We'll always have Paris' - Olympic memories one year on

"We'll always have Paris."The iconic line uttered that Humphrey Bogart's character Rick tells Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa in 'Casablanca' is one of the most famous quotes in movie historySpoken of a love affair in the French capital, the memories of which remain no matter what the future the success at the Olympics, it's also how I still feel one year on from the Paris months on, those six glorious days - arguably the greatest week in Northern Ireland's sporting history - when there were four gold medals, a silver and two bronzes to celebrate forged an indelible sporting love affair with the city. Prior, it had been 36 years since an athlete from Northern Ireland had won an Olympic gold medal - those coming when Stephen Martin and Jimmy Kirkwood were part of the triumphant GB&NI Hockey team at Seoul longer was the 52-year wait since the only female Olympic champion from these shores, Lady Mary Peters who topped the podium after the pentathlon in Munich of a sudden in Paris - three golds came in the space of 16 Daniel Wiffen and Jack McMillan took gold in the pool for Team Ireland and Team GB&NI respectively before the next day rower Hannah Scott was a part of Team GB's dramatic quadruple sculls' he had to wait a little longer for his moment, three days later Rhys McClenaghan's dominant showing on the pommel horse completed the golden addition, rower Rebecca Shorten won silver for Team GB&NI, Philip Doyle took bronze for Team Ireland as did Wiffen who, with his gold already secured, returned home with two medals. Paris achievements should not be forgotten After the Games finished I wrote: "There are so many factors that go into the making of an Olympic champion from funding to facilities, to the support of family and friends, as well as great coaching."Ultimately it comes down to the individual. Their journey, the highs and the lows, and how they deal with that goes further than anything else to making them the athlete that becomes the Olympic gold medallist."Whether it's coming from behind in the final length of an 800m swim to win gold, conquering the jeopardy of the pommel horse by producing a world class performance, or winning a rowing race with the very final stroke, Northern Ireland's athletes have shown they are the best in the world."A year down the track and all of the above remains is important 12 months later is that their achievements in Paris not be forgotten and that they continue to serve as an inspiration, not only to other elite athletes, but to thousands of kids who each week pack out the gymnastics clubs, swimming pools, athletics tracks, rowing clubs and other sporting venues across Northern Ireland and need heroes to look up to. Better still if they come from Coleraine or Magheralin, Newtownards, Belfast or Banbridge. A quarter of a century ago at Sydney 2000 - the first Olympics I reported on - there were only seven athletes from Northern Paris there were a record opportunities are there to pursue Olympic dreams but it's a long, hard road to five of the six medallists from Paris have committed to the LA Olympics in three years time, 2025 has shown the effort, perseverance and resilience needed to win a medal can have lingering has just had shoulder surgery, hasn't competed since Paris, and won't until next is the only medallist not to say yes to Los Angeles after surgery on both hips at the start of this year. She is slowly rehabbing but hasn't made a decision on her has competed once at a rowing World Cup while Scott, because of illness, has yet to make her return to the GB team. Both are still hoping to compete at the World Championships in has struggled at the recent World Swimming Championships having suffered from appendicitis, while McMillan remains a member of the highly successful GB 200m freestyle relay squad. Olympic medallists are not immune from lows on their journey but how these champions deal with the setbacks moving forward will also be an example to those who look to emulate organising committee of the Los Angeles Games recently celebrated three years to go until the opening ceremony at the iconic LA Coliseum by releasing a first draft of the competition never too early to begin planning or to start dreaming of what could happen in the shadow of the Hollywood script has already flipped as the Paris medallists, and new hopefuls, look to the though, the memories of a year ago remain - "We'll always have Paris."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store