Thursday 30 October 2014 16:15, UK
Siobhan-Marie O'Connor returned to competitive action for the first tome since the Commonwealth Games in Toyko, winning two bronze medals in her first World Cup event of the season.
Considering her lengthy absence, the Sky Academy Sports Scholar's performances over the two day event were incredible as she went head to head with the world's best in Japan.
O'Connor's first medal came in the 200m individual medley, the event which she won in a British and Commonwealth Games record time over the summer. The Bath swimmer was up against the world record holder Katinka Hosszu and as such even a repeat performance would not guarantee gold on this occasion.
That was how it turned out as Hosszu stormed to victory in 2:05.18 with the Hungarian followed by the USA's Caitlin Leverenz (2:06.15) and O'Connor in third. Her time of 2:07.21 was a whole second quicker than in Glasgow, albeit in a short course pool.
O'Connor's second medal came in the shorter 100m individual medley. Again it was Hosszu (57.74) who emerged victorious but with less than a second covering the top three, both Alia Atkinson (58.47) or O'Connor (57.56) ran her close. The Jamaican claimed the silver but another bronze represented a good start to the World Cup series for O'Connor, who travels to Singapore for the next event this weekend.
