Silver medal for University of Stirling swimmer at World Championships

University of Stirling swimmer Angharad Evans has won a silver medal with Great Britain at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m).

The 21-year-old breaststroke specialist was part of the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay team which finished second to the world-record-setting United States in Sunday’s final in Budapest.

The race was kicked off by Abbie Wood on backstroke, who clocked a personal best and handed over in fifth, before Evans moved Britain up to third with four strong laps of short-course swimming. Eva Okaro swam the butterfly leg – maintaining third position – before handing over to Freya Anderson on the anchor freestyle leg. Anderson clawed back the advantage that China had in second, to get to the wall for silver – setting a new British record of 3:47.84.

It secured Britain’s third and final medal of the meet, and was the first it has won in a women’s medley relay at World Championship level – across long or short course – in 16 years.

Evans – who competed at the Olympics in Paris earlier this year – said: “I'm so pleased with that, I think that was my seventh 100m of the meet, so I'm slowly learning each time, but also each time, I'm enjoying it more and more - and racing with the girls on the last night is all the experience I've needed for this meet, it's been a lot of fun.”

Earlier in the week, Evans swam in the finals of the individual 100m and 200m Breaststroke – finishing seventh and eighth, respectively. She also competed in the heats for the 50m Breaststroke, while Stirling stablemate Paige van der Westhuizen swam in the 100m and 200m Freestyle.

David Bond, Head of Performance Sport at the University of Stirling, said: “This is a special moment for Angharad – bringing home a silver medal from the World Championships. Along with her teammates, she put in a fantastic performance, and we are all very proud. Congratulations to Angharad and Great Britain.

“It was also great to see Angharad and Paige compete in their individual events too.”

The University of Stirling offers a world-leading high-performance swim programme, which provides athletes with a bespoke package of world-class coaching, access to state-of-the-art facilities, performance mentoring and access to the latest innovations in sports research. Those on scholarships can also benefit from academic flexibility to support their education alongside their sporting ambitions.

Ben Higson leads the programme, supported by Brad Hay, Josh Williamson and Charlie Boldison, and current athletes include Duncan Scott, Kathleen Dawson, Jack McMillan and Katie Shanahan.