The start of the swimming competition at the 17th FINA World Championships produced fine performances in a packed Duna Arena in Budapest (HUN). In the two individual finals of the day, both Sun Yang (CHN) and Katie Ledecky (USA) confirmed their favourite status, getting their third consecutive titles in the event. The North American star […]
via SUN AND LEDECKY SHINE IN THE 400M FREE; SJOSTROM SETS 100M FREE WR — newfanzoneblog
Katie Ledecky (USA) and Sun Yang (CHN) were the best swimmers of the 16th FINA World Championships in Kazan (RUS), after the completion of the eight days of competition. The US star collected five golds and three World Records, while the Chinese champion goes home with two world titles and a silver medal. The team of the United States also won the overall “Team Trophy” of the competition, after being at the top of the medals’ table, with 8 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze medals, for a total of 23 podium presences. However, since 1998, this is the second worse result for US, after the 22 medals in Rome 2009 (but with 10 golds on the counter).
To this US relatively modest result contributed the excellent performances of Australia, China and Great Britain, the next ranked countries in the medal’s table, with 16, 13 and 9 awards respectively. In terms of comparison, Australia had only 13 medals in Barcelona (but three golds in 2013 against 7 now), China was at 9, and Great Britain had only placed one athlete in the podium! In a medal chart with 23 countries, new entries included Jamaica, Singapore and Argentina.
Individually, many stars have shone in the Kazan Arena outstanding facility. Multi-medallists included Bronte Campbell and Mitchell Larkin, both from Australia, Florent Manaudou and Camille Lacourt, from France, Adam Peaty and James Guy, from Great Britain, Katinka Hosszu (HUN), Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA), Alia Atkinson (JAM), Lauren Boyle (NZL), Cameron van der Burgh (RSA), Yulia Efimova (RUS), Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) and Ryan Lochte (USA).
In the initial final of the eighth and last competition day in Kazan, Camille Lacourt (FRA) revalidated his 2013 title in the men’s 50m backstroke in a time of 24.23. It was his second individual medal in Kazan, after the silver in the 100m backstroke – moreover, Lacourt equals Liam Tancock (GBR), who also won two back-to-back gold medals in this event, in 2009 and 2011. Precisely six years ago, in the Italian capital, Tancock had set the World Record still in charts, 24.04, but this time he was the seventh of the final in 24.88.
FINA.ORG
In a first day of four finals at the 16th FINA World Championships in Kazan (RUS), the best performance appeared in a semi-final, when Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) qualified first for the decisive race in a World Record of 55.74 in the women’s 100m butterfly. The Swedish star improved the previous best global mark from Dana Vollmer (USA), who had raced for gold at the London 2012 Olympics in a time of 55.98. In terms of performances, this was the highlight of the inaugural day in the capital of Tatarstan, but many other intense moments marked the finals’ session.
In the men’s 400m free, Chinese star Sun Yang found no major difficulties in revalidating his world title, touching home in 3:42.58. He was challenged by silver medallist James Guy (GBR) until the 300m-mark, but Sun’s final lap was sufficient to secure gold.
Starting very strong, Katie Ledecky (USA) was in a good pace to break her own World Record in the women’s 400m free, but some final fatigue dictated a comfortable win in “only” a Championship Record of 3:59.13. The only woman under four minutes, the US champion (winner in 2013) had also been the fastest of the preliminaries, giving the idea that the WR (which she holds at 3:58.37) could be a tangible target in the decisive race.
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