Ireland’s John Shortt added bronze in the 50m backstroke to the gold he won in the 100m event on Wednesday to continue a brilliant week at the World Aquatics Junior Championships in Romania.
In a thrilling race where joint gold medals were awarded, the 18-year-old from Galway grabbed bronze in a time of 25.06 seconds from an outside lane, lowering his lifetime best of 25.36 that he swam in Thursday’s semi-final. The gold medals went to Italy’s Daniele del Signore and neutral athlete Georgii Iakovlev in 24.91.
“It feels pretty good, not unexpected, we knew we could do it tonight,” said Shortt. “I’ve got to shout out Róisín [physio] who got me right after the 100m back final so a big shout out to her, and you know when you’ve got a lane, you’ve got a chance and that’s exactly what happened tonight.
“I thought my start wasn’t great, as in my actual start, I kind of felt like I not slipped, but my feet kind of went down just a small bit when I pushed off. But my first 25m was pretty good and I’d no idea what was going on around me so I just starting pulling like a dog and you know that was it, I touched the wall and got a medal, so happy out.”
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The National Centre Limerick swimmer will be back in the pool on Sunday, for his main event, the 200m backstroke. There is no semi-final in the event, the top eight swimmers from the heats progressing to Sunday evening’s final.
