Star Davies battles to world bronze (From Barry And District News)

Star Davies battles to world bronze

BARRY'S swimming superstar David Davies repeated his Olympic Games heroics when he won another bronze medal at the World Championships in Montreal last Sunday.

David, aged 20, looked out of contention for a medal at one stage, but battled back superbly to take third place in the 1,500m freestyle, and claim Britain's third medal of the Championships.

The Welsh Wizard, who is one of only 15 men ever to go below 15 minutes in the 1,500m frestyle event, fully deserved his podium place.

In qualifying with a time of 14min 59.33sec, David finished nearly a second clear of his rivals, to set up a rerun of the 2004 Olympic final against Grant Hackett, of Australia, and Larsen Jensen, of the USA.

Then it was the big two who claimed gold and silver, leaving the Welshman with a magnificent bronze.

Hackett repeated his gold medal performance, leading from the off, and became the first man in history to win four consecutive World Championship medals in the 1500m.

David was only fourth at 500 metres, but he overhauled Russian Yuri Prilukov and then passed the American Jensen in his bid for silver.

However, it was not to be and in the final 50m Jensen fought back and outsprinted David for second place.

The Barry man finished sixth in the 800m frestyle event held earlier in the week.