UF swimmer Stephanie Proud (Durham, England) sped to a gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke for Great Britain Monday at the World University Games, setting a new UF and WUG record in the process.

Proud, who was the top qualifier after Sunday semifinals (2:10.32), cruised to a winning time of 2:08.91, shattering the UF record (2:09.19) and her own WUG record, established Sunday. Proud out-touched U.S.A.’s Kristen Heiss, who earned silver (2:09.22) and Tomoyo Fukuda of Japan (2:11.17), who took home the bronze medal.

A six-time All-American, Proud finished third in the 200-yard back at both the 2009 SEC and NCAA Championship meets and successfully converted to meters for international summer competition.

Gator men’s swimmer Balazs Gercsak (Hungary) finished 14^th in heats of the men’s 200-meter freestyle (1:50.84), advancing to the semifinals, where he finished 15^th overall (1:50.68), missing the eight-man final.

Between heats and semifinals of the 200-meter freestyle, Gercsak swam heats of the 800-meter free, clocking an 8:22.40, good for 19^th overall, narrowly missing the 16-man semifinal event.

Proud and Gercsak return to action Tuesday in Serbia at the Tasmajdan Sports Rec Center. To follow swimming semi-live results, visit here.

-UF-