FORMER Ellesmere College swimmer Freya Anderson was part of Great Britain’s mixed 4x100m freestyle relay team which set a new European record in Japan this week.

Anderson and her team-mates clinched bronze at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan and set a new British and European swimming record.

Anderson, Matt Richards, Duncan Scott and Anna Hopkin clocked 3:21.68 to take the final podium place in Fukuoka behind Australia, who set a new world record of 3:18.83, and the United States of America.

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Whitchurch Herald: Freya Anderson (right) with her Team GB relay team-mates. Picture: Team GB.

Freya Anderson (right) with her Team GB relay team-mates. Picture: Team GB.

Reflecting on the podium moment following a couple of near-misses in the women’s freestyle relays, Anderson, said: “It’s really nice. We’ve had two fourth places in the women’s freestyle relays, and I was anchoring them both. That has been on my mind, what I could’ve done differently, so it’s been about forgetting about that, refocusing for these guys and getting the job done, which we all did. So yeah, I’m pretty happy.”

There were a number of other strong swims throughout the week from various members of the squad.

The relay quartet of Hopkin, Lucy Hope, Abbie Wood and Anderson teamed up for fourth in the women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay final in a new British record time of 3:33.90.

The 2023 championships will go down as Britain's second most successful and further raises Anderson's stock as one of the country's leading swimmers ahead of next year's Olympic Games in Paris.

They recorded eight medals in eight days of competition at the Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall and leave with optimistic feelings about their prospects for medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

From those eight medals, there were two golds, two silvers and four bronze with four individual medals for English swimmers across the programme to ensure a happy flight home following eight days of action.