Room-mates in position to land butterfly medals

After a night without any British finalists at the World Championships in Shanghai, Jemma Lowe is the fastest woman into today’s 200m butterfly final with room-mate Ellen Gandy also a medal contender in fourth.

As well as Gandy and Lowe, James Goddard reached the 200m individual medley final in sixth where he will face the might of Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps, the 14-time Olympic champion having claimed his first title of the competition yesterday when he won the 200m butterfly.

Lowe was on scintillating form coming into the championships after setting her first personal bests in three years over both 100m and 200m last month in Sheffield.

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The 21-year-old was eighth in the 100m butterfly final earlier this week, three places behind Gandy, and yesterday showed complete confidence in her race strategy as she overhauled Olympic champion Liu Zige on the final length to touch in two minutes 06.30 seconds.

“I’m just so excited now,” she said. “I knew it was going to be a really fast race from the time (in the morning). “My coach told me how to pace the race and we’ve been working on it in training.”

Aged just 19, Gandy is based in Melbourne after her parents relocated to Australia. She led from start to finish to win her semi and believes her experience at the last World Championships in Rome in 2009, where she “fell apart” after heading in top of the rankings, had been educational.

“I think I had to make those mistakes in Rome and I really wasn’t ready for it but I needed to do that so I’d be ready for this meet,” she said. “One year from the Olympics this is where I really need to step up and get out there.”

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Out of the pool, former world 100m backstroke champion Gemma Spofforth announced her intention to carry on until 2012 after coming close to quitting the sport.

The 23-year-old has experienced an emotionally draining 2010 and admits she has not enjoyed her time in the water this year.

“There was a really big decision for me,” said Spofforth. “Whether I should do one more year or whether I should give up because this year hasn’t been fun and 2009 was maybe my time.

“But I decided this morning that it’s 100 per cent commitment from here on in and (I will) not take a break and get fit and get ready for next year.”

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