Abbie Wood Secures Second Bronze Medal at World Aquatics Short Course Championships

Great Britain’s Abbie Wood, an athlete who has competed at the Olympics in Tokyo and Paris, secured a bronze medal in the women’s 400m individual medley at the World Aquatics Short Course Championships held in Budapest. This marks Wood’s second bronze medal at the championships, having also placed third in the 200m individual medley on the opening night. In the 400m IM event, Canada’s three-time Olympic champion Summer McIntosh claimed victory with a new world record time of four minutes 15.48 seconds. Katie Grimes of the United States finished second in 4:20.14, while Wood achieved a personal best time of 4:24.34 for her third-place finish. The 25-year-old Wood commented on her performance, stating, “I’ve been waiting for that PB for like four years now.” She added, “I think I got it in this pool back in 2020 and it’s kind of the same mentality of no pressure and just race. I think I need to go into the rest of the season in that way.” Wood further elaborated, “I’ve got a lot to take away from how I’ve been training the last three months, like I definitely think we’ll look at it as we move into long course as we can’t ignore the results I’ve got and I hope that builds into confidence in my racing moving forwards.”