WARRINGTON swimmer Kathleen Dawson has missed out on a second Olympic medal.
For the second Games in a row, the former Great Sankey High School student competed in the final with the Team GB mixed 4x100m medley quartet in Paris tonight.
The 26-year-old swam the opening backstroke leg, as she did yesterday as the British team qualified through the heats and as she did in Tokyo 2020 when the gold medal was secured alongside James Guy, Adam Peaty and Freya Anderson in world-record time.
For this final in the Paris La Defense Arena, Dawson, who came through the ranks with Warriors of Warrington Swimming Club, was the only surviving member of the team that stormed to glory in the Covid-delayed Games of three years ago in Japan.
James Wilby tackled the breaststroke leg, Duncan Scott took over for the fly 100m and Anna Hopkin produced the freestyle finale as together they finished seventh in the final swimming event of Paris 2024.
And just to add to the disappointment, the USA team broke Team GB’s world record as they won gold ahead of China and bronze-placed Australia.
Team GB’s time of 3mins 44.31secs was nearly seven seconds behind what they achieved in Tokyo.
It was Dawson’s second swim of the day, as she had also competed in the women’s 4x100m medley relay earlier.
Team GB finished fifth in their heat, missing out on tomorrow night’s final.
In all, Dawson has had four 100m backstroke swims in Paris 2024 with her times being remarkably consistent.
Tonight, she clocked 1min 00.68secs backing up the 1min 00.67secs she did earlier in the day.
In the individual heats on Monday, she got the touch in 1min 00.69secs and then in the mixed 4x100m medley heats yesterday Dawson registered her fastest time of Paris 2024 with 1min 00.18secs.
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