Cooper Wins Big at Worlds
Funky Trunks athlete Isaac Cooper made a statement at World Championships in Doha winning gold in the 50m backstroke.
Cooper, who was competing in his second World Championship, finished fourth in the heats with a 24.13, then qualified fastest in the semi-finals with a 24.12. Cooper wanted to go under the 24 barrier in the final, but the roof of the Aspire Dome had disorientated him and he ended up on the lane rope, which he hit multiple times. He still achieved an incredible time of 24.13 to win gold, Australia’s 100th gold medal at a World Championships in the pool.
Cooper’s push to add the freestyle and butterfly sprints to his training program has paid off with a fifth in the 50m freestyle final in a time of 21.77 and fourth in the 50m butterfly with a time of 23.12, narrowly missing out on a bronze to Aussie sprint champion Cameron McEvoy by 0.04.
It was also good news for Funky Trunks sponsored British athletes, Jacob Whittle and Joe Litchfield who both helped Team GB secure Olympic relay berths. After disqualification last year in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay World Championship heats in Fukuoka, Japan, Whittle and the rest of GB’s team including Olympic medallists, Tom Dean and Duncan Scott, finished fourth and in so doing booked an Olympic spot.
Joe Litchfield also finished fourth in the 4x200m freestyle relay, as he and his GB teammates finished just over three seconds behind USA. Litchfield however remained upbeat despite missing out on a bronze.
“It wasn’t a bad swim for an in season meet and having not rested,” said Joe.
“We have our Trials for the Olympic Games in April and I feel I’m definitely on track for this meet and am hopeful to qualify for the Olympics.”
Funky Trunks athlete and world record holder Andrii Govorov competed in Doha, but the Ukrainian failed to get out of the heats in both the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle.
Govorov explained afterwards that the Olympics is where his focus is at the moment.
“It’s not where I want to be yet. For me it's time to prepare for the qualification for the Olympics in Paris. So, the World Championship was a stepping stone to see where I am at and to see what I will work on in the next weeks and months.”
Funky Trunks’ Richard Nagy and Conor Ferguson also raced in Doha with Nagy competing in the 200m and 400m individual medley as well as being a part of Slovakia’s 4x100m freestyle relay team whilst Ferguson swam in the 200m backstroke and was in Ireland’s 4x100m medley relay team.
Five medals were also won by Funkita athletes in both the diving and swimming events. Alysha Koloi won gold in the 1m springboard and Bettina Fabian won bronze along with the rest of her Hungarian open water teammates in the mixed 4x1500m relay. The star of the Funkita show however was 18-year-old Iona Anderson who won silver in both the 50m and 100m backstroke and gold in the women’s 4x100m Medley relay for Australia.