Isle of Wight swimmer Zac Lacey won a total of 5 medals at the World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships in Albufeira, Portugal last week.
Zac had qualified for Team GB along with 29 others and had a busy schedule with 7 individual events and 3 relay events over the week.
The 22-year-old, who lives in Ryde and attends HTP College in Newport where he is studying to become a Fitness instructor, trains with Seaclose Swimming Club under the guidance of the coaching team led by Val Gard. He also helps to teach and coach with the swimming sessions of Isle of Wight Sporting Opportunities.
Zac has been part of Team GB since 2016 but has taken time to develop into the senior ranks after being a Junior World Record Holder. Zac is also 1 of the Isle of Wight Council’s talented Athletes and appreciates all the help from sponsors like Wightlink.
Lacey’s specialism is Butterfly and on Day 1, after Personal Best performances in the 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle races, he swam the butterfly leg of the 4x 100m Medley relay team where they gained a silver medal, finishing just behind Italy.
Day 2 saw Zac compete in the 50 fly event where he was 3rd fastest into the evening final but missed out on a medal by just 0.28 sec.
Day 3 saw Zac make the 200m Individual Medley final and finish 5th. He then joined up with his Team GB teammates for the 4x 200m Freestyle Relay event where he swam the 2nd leg to help them win a silver medal.
Day 4 featured the 100m Butterfly where Zac swam a World Record time in his heat of 1:17.85. However, this record was broken in the last heat by Portugal’s Perreira in a time of 1:16.98. The 2 then faced off in the evening final where Zac led for 90 metres but the Portuguese swimmer came through in the last 10 metres and set a new World Record time of 1:13.95, with Zac gaining a silver medal in 1:14.43. The previous World Champion Scotti from Italy was 3rd in a time of 1:16.72.
Zac also then went on to complete the Backstroke leg of the 4x 50m Medley relay and gained another silver medal for Team GB.
Having won his 1st ever individual world medal, Zac somehow found enough energy on Day 5 to compete in the 100m Individual Medley and 200m Butterfly events. Zac qualified for both finals again with the 200m Butterfly the 1st event in the evening session. From the start of the race Zac lead out the competition and at halfway was leading by nearly 10 metres in a time of 1:19.00. He stretched this lead further over the remaining 4 lengths and finished 5 seconds ahead of the previous World Champion in a time of 2:54.86 secs to become World Champion and take his 1st ever gold medal at World level.
Zac’s week saw him achieve personal bests in all 7 of his entries and 1 gold and 4 silver medals. Team GB also took the top team with over 50 medals.
On his achievements, Zac said:
“I was very excited to be going to Portugal and have worked really hard over the last year. These medals and to be World Champion is a dream come true.’
“I would like to thank Seaclose Swimming coaches for their help and my family for their support. I would also like to say that without the help of Isle of Wight Council, Wightlink and many others I could not do this. Thank you and please share my success.”
