Thursday 14 May 2015 10:57, UK
Fran Halsall was left feeling bitter-sweet after she claimed Great Britain's first medal of the World Championships with third place in the 50 metres freeestyle in Barcelona.
The 23-year-old endured a torrid time when she failed to collect a medal at last year's Olympics and then on Saturday night she was locked out of the top three in the 50m butterfly, finishing fourth.
However, the Loughborough ITC swimmer returned to the Palau Sant Jordi on Sunday to take bronze in 24.30 seconds - her second medal at global long-course competition following her silver in the 100m freestyle at the 2009 World Championships in Rome.
Two fourth places at the Shanghai worlds two years ago followed before fifth and sixth over 50m and 100m freestyle last summer in London left her bereft.
The arrival of new coach James Gibson in December to replace Canada-bound Ben Titley, as well as world short-course 50m freestyle silver, saw a gradual return to form for Halsall, who still wished her bronze behind Olympic champion Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Australia's Cate Campbell could have been gold.
She said: "I'm a bit disappointed to be honest. A medal's nice but I wanted gold so bitter-sweet really.
I'm a bit disappointed to be honest. A medal's nice but I wanted gold so bitter-sweet really. I'm happy to be on the podium but I would have liked to have been a bit faster. I think it was more about me erasing my demons of 2011 and then fifth in the Olympics in 2012.
"I'm happy to be on the podium but I would have liked to have been a bit faster. I think it was more about me erasing my demons of 2011 and then fifth in the Olympics in 2012.
"I've had a lot to contend with: it's very easy when you've got a new coach and you're getting back into it and you are still disappointed with what happened to have an off year, not get back into shape and not get back into form this quickly.
"So I am really proud of myself for doing that and really proud I've managed to step back up."
Halsall's medal followed Daniel Wallace's seventh place in the 400m individual medley as he lowered his personal best for the second time on Sunday on his senior international debut.
The 20-year-old had set a new best to qualify sixth on Sunday morning and he returned to lower it again to four minutes 13.72 seconds in a race won by Daiya Seto of Japan.
Dan Fogg was eighth in the 1,500m freestyle in 15:05.92 in a race won by Sun Yang, the Chinese swimmer taking a clean sweep of all the distance freestyle events.
Meanwhile, American teenager Missy Franklin became the first woman to win six golds at a single world championships when she helped the United States to victory in the 4x100 metres medley relay.
The 18-year-old swam the opening, backstroke leg in the hilltop pool in Barcelona and the US triumph followed her titles this week in 100 and 200 backstroke, 200 freestyle and the 4x100 and 4x200 freestyle relays.
