Disappointed Payne seventh in defence of world open water title

KERI-Anne Payne failed to defend her world 10km open water title after placing a disappointing seventh in Quebec.

PRIORITIES: Keri Anne Payne is looking towards the Commonwealth Games after failing to defend her world open water title (Getty Images)

Payne admitted pre-race that her focus was trained on October's Commonwealth Games, with events in Canada, the last stand alone World Open Water Championships, with governing body FINA doing away with the competition to place more emphasis on the races at the biennial World Championships.

Italy's Martina Grimaldi, third behind Payne in Rome last year, took gold in 2:05.45.20 while 20-year old team-mate Georgia Consiglio claimed silver and China's Yanqiao Fang bronze.

Like Payne, Russian Olympic champion Larissa Ilchenko fell off the pace and was out of the medals while Great Britain's Cassie Patten, the Olympic bronze medallist, finished 14th.

Elsewhere, Great Britain's Rachael Kelly added 100m butterfy gold to her silver earlier in the week at the European Junior Championships in Helsinki while team-mates Emma Saunders, Fiona Donnelly, Rachael Williamson and Sophie Smith took 4x200m freestyle relay silver behind Germany in a time of 8:10.21.

"I was seeded first before the meet even though I was placed third after the semis so I'm happy with the gold," said Kelly, after clocking 1.00.47.

"I've still got the 50m and the medley relay so I'm hoping for even more."

It caps a memorable week for Kelly, who was also named in the Great Britain team for next month's first-ever Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.