Laura Stephens becomes Britain's first female individual swimming world champion since 2011 with Doha success
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Published 15/02/2024 at 22:18 GMT
Great Britain has a new swimming hero ahead of this year's Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Laura Stephens became the country's first individual female gold medalist at the World Aquatic Championships since 2011 by claiming 200m butterfly glory in Doha. The 24-year old says she "can't believe it" and has now set her sights on glory in France later this year.
Laura Stephens of Great Britain poses with her gold medal after winning the final of the Women's 200m Butterfly on day fourteen of the Doha 2024 World Aquatics Championships at Aspire Dome on February 15, 2024 in Doha, Qatar.
Image credit: Getty Images
Great Britain's Laura Stephens admits she "cannot believe it" after winning her first world title.
The 24-year-old clinched first place in the 200m butterfly at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha.
It means she becomes her country's first female individual world champion since Rebecca Adlington back in 2011.
"I'm definitely very happy," she smiled. "It's really hard to put into words, to be honest with you, I just can't believe it!
"I came into this meet hoping for three solid swims, to learn through the process - and to come away on top of the podium is kind of crazy."
Stephens, who also reached the final in 2019 and 2023, recorded a time of two minutes 7.35 seconds to finish in first place.
She led from the start in Doha and finished ahead of Denmark's Helena Bach by less than 0.1 of a second, while Lana Pudar of Bosnia and Herzegovina came third.
It adds to the silver medal she won in the same event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
And after getting that first taste of gold, Stephens is now setting her sights on further success at the Paris 2024 Olympics later this year.
"I had no expectations in terms of time," she added. "It's February, so I couldn't even come into this hoping for PBs or things like that.
"But that is a really solid swim, it's a great way to start off the long-course season and hopefully I can just get faster and faster.
"This definitely gives me a lot of confidence towards Paris. If anything, it just makes me more excited to get back into the hard work, into the training and to keep on improving.
"I think I executed well - it's all about the Olympics this summer and we're still working towards that and this is great, but we've still got some hard work to go."
Elsewhere, there was more medals for Great Britain in the women's 4 x 200m freestyle relay.
Freya Colbert, Abbie Wood, Lucy Hope and Medi Eira Harris swam a time of seven minutes 50.90 seconds to finish in second place, behind China and ahead of Australia.
It means Team GB have picked up 15 medals at the event.
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