Kate Shortman made history at the World Aquatics Championships by winning Britain’s first artistic swimming medal with a bronze in the solo free final.
The 21-year-old, who won a European bronze alongside Izzy Thorpe in the tech duet last month, produced a nerveless display in Fukuoka, Japan.
She scored 32.9000 for difficulty, 86.8000 for artistic impression and 133.1542 for execution.
A score of 219.9542 saw her finish 12 points clear of Audrey Lamothe.
Japan’s Yukiko Inui won gold, with Vasiliki Alexandri of Austria taking silver.
“I can’t even put it into words, I am so excited,” said Shortman. “This is just a crazy step in the right direction for Great Britain, hopefully putting us on the map a bit more.
“I just swam my heart out and was really thinking about staying precise, staying controlled and not getting too excited with the prelims score – because I did well in that, I didn’t want to run away with it, I just wanted to control it and I did the best I could.
“I didn’t want to go too high risk, I know a few of the other soloists did and unfortunately it didn’t pay off. They’ve been really strict at this competition with base marks – I wanted to do the best I could and that meant a no-base-mark swim.”
