Hector Pardoe claimed a 10th place finish at the 2023 World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Sunday.

The 22 year old Wrexham born swimmer crossed the line in 1:53.04.

In a world class field of 69 swimmers from over 36 Nations, the race was ultimately won by Florian Wellbrock of Germany, with Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky taking silver and Oliver Klemet from Germany taking bronze.

Pardoe was the only male GB marathon swimmer to have qualified for the World Championships and his 10th place means he has automatically met the selection criteria for the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying race which is to be held in Doha next February.

He said: “As always, I’m a little bit disappointed – but that is a good thing – it spurs me on knowing that there is room for improvement.

OTHER NEWS:

"I wish that I’d just attacked the main pack a little bit earlier- as I finished with a lot of energy still in the tank.

"I was aiming for a top eight finish before the race and could and should have achieved that. But it’s progress – finishing one place higher than my 11th at last year's Budapest World Championships – so I will take that positive.

"I've hit the Paris Olympics qualifying race selection criteria -so it’s now time to focus all of my energy and training on that.”

His next race will be the third leg of the World Series in Paris in two weeks time.

The race will take place at the Pont Alexandre lll on the River Seine, which is set to be the Paris 2024 Olympic venue and will therefore act as a test event.

He will be following this up in early September at the Great North Swim where he hopes to beat the current world record of 3 hours 35 minutes for swimming the 11 mile length of Lake Windermere.

Born in Wrexham, he joined Whitchurch Wasps  Swimming Club before gaining a scholarship to Ellesmere College Titans Performance Programme a year later.  

Want to stay up to date with all the latest stories from Whitchurch and the surrounding area? Click here to sign up for our morning and daily email newsletters and click on the + for the 'Morning Briefing' and the 'Daily Catch-Up'.

From 2019-2022 he trained in Montpellier under the coaching expertise of Phillipe Lucas.

At the 2017 World Junior Open Water Championships he became the first GB swimmer in history to win a medal when he took the bronze in the 5000 metres.

At the 2020 French Open Water Championships he became the first British Swimmer to go sub five hours in a 25,000 event when he recorded a time of 4:59.03. 

The 22 year old is a lifelong vegetarian and Wimbledon fan and is also sponsored by Aquasphere.