There were more golden moments for Plymouth at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha on Thursday. After Tom Daley last week won Gold and Silver medals, swimmer Laura Stephens won her first world title in the women’s 200m butterfly – and then Aidan Heslop claimed high diving gold.
The 24-year-old swimmer took gold in a time of 2.07.35 as she became the first British woman to win an individual world championship since 2011.. Heslop then pulled off the toughest dive ever seen at a world championship to win his gold medal.
No British woman had won an individual world title since Rebecca Adlington in 2011, and Stephens’ victory also made her the first Brit to win a world medal in the 200m butterfly event. This also marked Britain’s first swimming gold medal at the championships in Qatar.
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Stephens, who moved to Plymouth aged 14, and who swam for Plymouth Leander, as well as studying achitectural engineering at the University of Plymouth, had previously bagged silver in the same event at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 but had never won a world championships medal before.
“I can’t believe it – all I was thinking about in the last 50m was holding on,” Laura said. She led the race from start to finish but had to push hard in the final 50m to fend off Denmark’s Helena Bach, who finished second in two minutes 7.44 seconds, and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Lana Pudar (two minutes 7.92 seconds), who was third.
“I think I executed well – it’s all about the Olympics this summer and we’re still working towards that and this is great, but we’ve still got some hard work to go,” said Stephens.
In high diving, which isn’t an Olympic sport, Britain’s Aidan Heslop, who trains in Plymouth, won his first world title after pulling off the toughest dive ever seen at a world championship.
The 21-year-old’s final leap from the 27m platform scored 151.90 points, giving him a total of 422.95 and securing gold ahead of France’s Gary Hunt (silver with 413.25) and Catalin-Petru Preda (bronze with 410.20).
“It’s pretty nice [being called world champion],” he said. “The dives weren’t exactly what I was looking for, especially on the first day – but today, I put that final dive down like it should be most of the time, it was pretty consistent today, and when you’ve got the big dives, that’s all you need to be on the top of the podium.
“I’m ecstatic, absolutely, but there’s more to be done, that’s for sure. That dive has brought me happiness and sadness at different competitions. It’s been good this week – I was really nervous up on top, as you would be, but I knew what I needed to do, and the two I’ve done in training this week have been pretty excellent as well.
“I think this was probably the worst of the three, actually, but if it’s enough to get me on top of the podium, I’m happy with that right now!”
Alongside some of his fellow high divers, Heslop’s drive to execute more and more difficult dives is driving this incredible sport on to greater heights – and that is something he hopes can continue.
“Being at the forefront of some of the biggest dives that people are doing nowadays is fun – it’s risky, but it’s fun,” said Heslop, who recently finished second in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.
“We are throwing these big dives that are most of the times within our limits, and we know what those are. But to deliver those in competition is a completely different story. I really like the position I’m in right now, and what I am doing to help develop the sport and develop those bigger dives.”
There could be more medals at the championships for Plymouth as Ben Proud begins his 50m freestyle campaign in the pool on Friday.