British Swimming Head Coach Bill Furniss Expresses Pride; “Good Platform” Ahead Of Paris 2024
British Swimming head coach Bill Furniss expressed pride in the squad’s performance but warned against applying too much weight to the eight-medal haul in terms of Paris 2024.
Britain leave the World Championships with two gold medals courtesy of Matt Richards and the men’s 4×200 along with two silvers from Tom Dean and Duncan Scott in the 200 free and 200IM respectively.
Ben Proud (50 free), Dean (200IM), Lauren Cox (50 back) and the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay brought home bronze medals.
Ben Proud: Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Cox became the first British woman to stand on a global individual long-course podium since Jazz Carlin won 800 silver at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
And that without Adam Peaty – winner of 10 medals across three World Championships – who has been focusing on his mental health recovery.
It matches the number earned by Britain in the pool at Cali 1975, the second edition of the World Championships, and Barcelona 2003.
There were no 50m events in Cali with the free introduced to the programme in 1986 with the remaining three strokes making their worlds debut at Fukuoka 2001.
The mixed relays only debuted at Kazan 2015 which ranks as the most successful meet for Britain with nine medals including five golds courtesy of an Adam Peaty double, James Guy, the men’s 4×2 and the mixed medley relay.
Britain came away with eight medals with seven in the pool and one in the open water from the 2009 and 2017 editions.
Furniss said:
“I’m really, really proud.
“It’s the performances in general first, the medals – we never focus on those, we focus on how well we can perform.
“And particularly with the setbacks that we had on day one (DQ of men’s 4×100 free) – how the team has battled through and the resilience they’ve shown is just great.
“We have a mantra that every day is day one – they’ve raced well, been resilient and eight medals is excellent.”
Bill Furniss: Photo Courtesy: British Swimming
Furniss though played down the significance of the medal total in terms of the Olympics this time next year.
At Rio 2016 they won six medals after a successful Kazan and Covid-19 meant a two-year gap between Gwangju 2019 – where they won seven – and Tokyo 2021, where they enjoyed their most successful Games with eight medals.
At the 2011 worlds, Britain won five medals in the pool – plus two in open water – before going on to take three at London 2012.
And that eight-medal haul at Barcelona 2003 was followed a year later by two for Britain at Athens 2004.
Furniss said:
“To have good results is encouraging and it gives you a platform but it’s not ever a predictor for what will happen at the Olympic Games.
“If you look historically at all the World Champs a year before the Olympics some people do well, a lot of people do well, but a lot of people fall by the wayside and new people come up.
“So we have to say this is good, it’s a good platform and move forward from there to do the best we can.”