Plymouth College's Ruta Meilutyte continued where she left off this summer with winning ways on the senior international stage. In her first competitive outing since winning the 100m Breaststroke gold at the Olympic Games this summer, she smashed her own Lithuanian National records to take two golds at the 2012 FINA World Cup held at the Erisdalsbadet Pool in Stockholm.
Not renowned for her short course (25m pool racing), Ruta's 100m Breaststroke time of 1:05.02 was three seconds faster than her previous best in a short course pool and also saw her take out the world number one in this event in a 25m pool, Jessica Hardy of USA. In the 50m Breaststroke, Ruta dipped under the 30 second barrier for the first time to take a second gold in 29.96; only Australia's Leisel Jones has been under the 30 second barrier in 2012. Ruta's coach and Plymouth College Director of Swimming, Jon Rudd, saw this as an important step in preparation for a challenge on the World Short Course Breaststroke titles this December in Istanbul.
A surprise but very welcome bronze medal in the 100m IM was to be added at the end of the second day, with Ruta once again breaking her own senior Lithuanian record with a powerful 1:00.65, having only qualified for the final in seventh position. A final appearance in the 50m Freestyle saw her finish fifth, again in a new National Senior record of 24.97. The 100m Freestyle saw her qualify for the final in fourth position in 54.54 (Lithuanian 17 years & under record) but to then withdraw from the final to prepare and challenge fully in the 50m Breaststroke final, the two finals being only minutes apart.
Olympian and new recruit into the Plymouth College and Plymouth Leander programme, Hazal Sarikaya (Turkey), was to just miss out on the 100m Backstroke final, finishing tenth in 1:02.37 and moving dramatically up the pre-meet seedings. Her time of 29.21 in the 50m Backstroke was to give her 12th.
On her return from Stockholm, Meilutyte said, "This has been a really positive meet for me, with all of my results being very pleasing and giving me great confidence into the World Championships in December. Racing in a 25m pool is not as important as long course racing but it forces me to concentrate on skills that are important for me to develop further between now and Rio 2016."
