?I Was Capable of a Lot More?: Despite Conquering the 200M Freestyle, Swimming Prodigy Admits Facing Difficulties at World Championships

After 17 days of thrilling events, The World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka closed on 31st July. The event was held in Japan after 22 years when 2,361 athletes from 191 countries participated in it and 10 swimming records were broken. Some familiar faces and some new faces were seen glorifying their skills in these championships. Along with other prolific swimmers, the English swimming sensation, Matt Richards took part and won the 200-meter freestyle.?

Richards specializes in 100 and 200-meter freestyle and he was more than thrilled to win the 200m championship. But the 20-year-old athlete was so passionate about giving his best in each event that he did not celebrate the victory and rather focused on performing well in the next event which was the 100m freestyle. However, he could not secure the gold for the 100m freestyle and expressed his frustrating thoughts with SwimSwam Swimming Podcast.?

Matt Richards reveals distress on 100m freestyle?

In 200m freestyle, Matt outperformed the other athletes and won the swimming event. He secured gold for Britain with his personal best score, 1:44:30. But unfortunately, he could not perform the same gold attaining freestyle swimming in 100 meters which was scheduled the next morning. Although, the Great British team was considered a favorite in 100 m freestyle, consisting of Lewis Edward Burras, Jacob Whittle, Duncan Scott, and Matthew Richards.

Matthew recently talked with the SwimSwam Swimming Podcast where he reveals his disappointment of not winning the event. When the interviewer asked Matt how he feels about coming off from the long eight-day meet of championships, he replied that he raced every day and finished 11 races during the meet. Matt stated that he did not even waste any time celebrating 200m. But still, he was not satisfied with his performance and said he could have done better. He asserted, ?I would be lying if I said, I was satisfied with 100 free. I think I was capable of a lot more than that.? Matt could not qualify for gold in that swimming event but the Australian Swimmer, Kyle Chalmers won the race. He secured the gold with his extraordinary performance and helped his nation, Australia to climb to the top of the international tally poll.?

Kyle Chalmers in the 100m relay

Australia finished as the top swimming country in the world with the most gold medals in the 2023 World Championships. With other well-known and powerful swimmers, Chalmers also put his blistering pace in water to clutch the gold for his team. On one hand, it was a delightful moment for Australians, and on the other hand, it was an unexpected time for the English fans. And if Matt and his team were not defeated, they could have broken the old British record of 3:11:14 with their time of 3:10:47.?

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Matthew was upset that he could not triumph in the 100-meter freestyle but he chose to stay optimistic. The swimmer stated, ?It was frustrating but at the same time a really positive step in the right direction. So overall, it was a great week.? The 20-year-old was upset about not winning the 100m event, but he learned a lot of new things from it.?

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