Swimming: Jemma Lowe leads the way to 200m butterfly final

AFTER a night of no British finalists at the World Championships in Shanghai, Jemma Lowe was the fastest woman into today's 200 metres butterfly final with room-mate Ellen Gandy also a medal contender in fourth.

As well as Gandy and Lowe, James Goddard reached the 200m individual medley final in sixth where he faces the might of Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps, the 14-time Olympic champion having claimed his first title of the competition yesterday when he won the 200m butterfly.

Lowe was on scintillating form coming into the championships after setting her first personal bests in three years over both 100m and 200m last month in Sheffield.

The 21-year-old was eighth in the 100m butterfly final earlier this week, three places behind Gandy, and last night she showed complete confidence in her race strategy as she overhauled Olympic champion Liu Zige on the final length to touch in two minutes 06.30 seconds.

The Swansea ITC swimmer said: "I'm just so excited now. I knew it was going to be a really fast race from the time this morning. My coach told me how to pace the race. We've been working on it in training so I am just really happy."

Lowe and Gandy are both rivals and friends, and Lowe added: "I'm really happy me and Ellen have managed to get into the final again. We both want each other to do well. It would be good if we could both get on the podium."

Gandy, aged 19, is based in Melbourne after her parents relocated to Australia. She led from start to finish to win her semi in 2mins 06.73secs, and believes her experience at the last World Championships in Rome in 2009, where she "fell apart" after heading in top of the rankings, has been educational.

She said: "I had to make those mistakes in Rome and I really wasn't ready for it in, but I needed to do that so I'd be ready for this meet. You can't control what everyone else does. It will be great to get a medal, but if I swim my best race and people beat me I'm not going to beat myself up."

Out of the pool, former world 100m backstroke champion Gemma Spofforth announced her intention to carry on until 2012 after coming close to quitting the sport. The 23-year-old has experienced an emotionally draining 2010 and admits she has not enjoyed her time in the water this year. The lowest point came when her father's partner died in March, three and a half years after her mother died which, despite her training as a counsellor at a crisis centre, left Spofforth feeling helpless. However, the Florida-based swimmer started questioning whether to carry on from around the time of the Commonwealth Games in October.

Spofforth said: "There was a really big decision for me - whether I should do one more year or whether I should give up because this year hasn't been fun and 2009 was maybe my time.

"But I decided this morning that it's 100 per cent commitment from here on in. A lot of thought went into it, I didn't get much sleep. I came down this morning, had a relatively good race, got through and realised that this is where I want to be."

A bout of sickness last weekend brought an abrupt end to Spofforth's 100m backstroke title defence. Yesterday, she finished 13th in the 50m backstroke, three places behind GB team-mate Georgia Davies, to bring to an end her programme at the Oriental Sports Centre.

Goddard overcame a shoulder problem to qualify sixth for tomorrow's medley final in 1:58.50. There he will meet Phelps, who retained his 200m butterfly crown when he overhauled Takeshi Matsuda in 1:53.34.

Federica Pellegrini went from fifth at the halfway stage to retain the 200m freestyle crown.

Sun Yang brought the crowd to a crescendo with a 1,500m freestyle victory, while Felipe Franca Da Silva won the 50m breaststroke.