Great Britain's Lizzie Simmonds wins World Cup gold Great Britain's Lizzie Simmonds won 50m backstroke gold and 200m bronze on day one of the Beijing World Cup. The Bath ITC swimmer, 22, won the 50m in 26.83 seconds, ahead of China's Yuanhui Fu and Ukraine's Daryna Zevina. Compatriot Sophie Allen also impressed, setting a new British record en route to 100m breaststroke silver and winning bronze in the 200m individual medley. Women: Katinka Hosszu (Hungary) Men: Chad le Clos (South Africa) And London 2012 silver medallist Michael Jamieson took silver in the 200m breaststroke. World bronze medallist Francesca Halsall also added to Great Britain's medal haul on the event's opening day with silver in the 50m freestyle behind Australia's Cate Campbell. Simmonds' double medal success came a day after it was announced that the two-time European gold medallist had lost individual funding from British Swimming. Roberto Pavoni narrowly missed out on the podium when a personal best of 4:08.35 was only good enough for fourth in the 400m individual medley, while 17-year-old Siobhan-Marie O'Connor had a similar result, posting a personal best of 1:55.26 for fourth place in the 200m freestyle. The Beijing meeting is the eighth and final event of the 2013 World Cup series, which ranks swimmers by awarding points for medals and times. Going into the Beijing event, Jamieson was Britain's top-ranked male swimmer at 12th in the world, with Sophie Allen 14th in the women's rankings. Hungary's Katinka Hosszu and Chad le Clos of South Africa lead the rankings. Next month sees the European Short Course Championships in Denmark, with Jamieson, Allen, Halsall and O'Connor among the British line-up.