By Will Jennings in Paris
Angharad Evans pushed through the Paris pain barrier to cap an Olympic debut to savour in front of travelling friends and family.
The Cambridge swimming star, 21, delivered a battling display to finish sixth in the women’s 100m breaststroke final on Monday night.
Evans, who clocked a stunning British record over the distance to book her place on the train to the French capital earlier this summer, came flying out of the blocks but was unable to challenge for a medal as she finished 0.26s behind Irish ace Mona McSharry in third.
The former Linton Village College pupil was roared on by loved ones at a packed out La Defense Arena and believes her maiden experience on the big stage can lay the platform for a bright future.
“I’m happy with that – I tried a different race tactic and went out a bit faster,” said Evans, who is one over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing her to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support.
“The last 15m was a lot more painful than it usually is, but I learned so much from that race and gained so much experience from the heats, semi-finals and finals so I’m thankful for that.
“I got quite nervous as I knew this was the biggest race I’ve ever been at, and having my family there meant so much to me.
“And also walking out and seeing all those British flags just means so much, so it’s definitely a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
“I’ve got my family, friends, parents siblings, friends from home and my old coaches, so that’s really meant a lot to me as I really wouldn’t be there without any of them.”
Evans catapulted herself onto the scene with a brilliant bronze medal at the British Summer Championships back in 2019.
A previous national record-holder in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke, the East Anglian star soon began to translate that form onto the senior stage before securing her place in Team GB with that red-hot time – eclipsing Molly Renshaw’s previous record – at this year’s British Championships.
She performed admirably in her individual event on Olympic debut and will now turn her attention to the relays later this week.
She had previously set the national U13 record in both those events and came close to the senior 100m breaststroke record as she staked her claim for Paris 2024 at the British Swimming Championships.
“I’ll take a few days to reset and then I’ve got the relays at the end of the week, so that’s exciting and we’ve got a strong female team.”
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