PLYMOUTH Leander’s Ruta Meilutyte surprisingly missed out on a medal in the 50m breaststroke event at the World Championships in Kazan.
The 18-year-old world record holder at the distance, finished fourth in an incredibly tight final behind Sweden’s surprise winner Jennie Johansson, Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson and 2013 champion Yuliya Efimova, who took bronze.
Meilutyte, who claimed a silver in the 100m race earlier in the week, only managed a time of 30.14 seconds, which was her slowest race of the World Championships. She had clocked 29.74 in the heats and 29.98 in the semi-finals, while her world record stands at 29.48.
Johansson won the final in a time of 30.05, with Atkinson just three hundredths of a second in front of Meilutyte with 30.11 and Efimova, who won the 100m earlier in the week, only one hundredth of a second ahead of her with 30.13.
Meanwhile, Meilutyte’s Leander team-mate Ben Proud helped Great Britain to a new national record, but they just missed out on a medal in the 4×100 medley relay at the World Championships in Kazan.
Proud swam the last leg of the relay as GB clocked 3:30.67 to finish fourth behind American, Australia and France.
The 20-year-old University of St Mark and St John student clocked an impressive 48.08 seconds for his 100m freestyle leg, but France’s Fabien Gilot just touched 0.17 seconds ahead of him to steal the final medal.