China swept the top two places in men's 1m springboard diving Thursday to close in on Russia atop the medals table at the World Swimming Championships. Away from the pool, the American swim team -- one of the contenders to lead the final medals count -- sized up its chances.
Xu Xiang took the gold and compatriot Wang Kenan won the silver to give China seven medals one less than Russia. All of China's medals have come in diving.
Xu scored 431.94 points, while Wang managed 412,41. Finland's Joona Puhakka took the bronze with 391.26. Russia's Alexander Dobroskok, who won gold in the 3m springboard on Wednesday, finished fourth with 378.45 points.
"We came here to get the good medals," said Xu, the 22-year-old reigning world cup 1m champion. "In recent days, the Chinese team was not doing so well, so we are very pleased to get these medals. I hope it's a good start for China."
By comparison, China won eight gold medals two years ago in the last worlds.
In synchronized swimming, Virginie Dedieu earned France its first medal of the championships. Her gold-medal performance in the solo competition left Russia's Anastasia Ermakova with the silver medal and Gemma Mengual of Spain with bronze.
Ermakova's silver kept Russia ahead of China in the medals table.
Dedieu was the favorite heading in to the competition, and her performance did not disappoint. She earned five perfect 10's for artistic impression and two 10's for technical merit.
"My aim was to perform perfectly, and I consider that the scores show I have achieved it," Dedieu said.
In women's water polo preliminaries, two-time defending world champion Italy narrowly edged host Spain 8-7. In the other Group D match, Hungary defeated Kazakstan 10-9.
In Group A, Brazil beat Britain 11-1 and Canada topped Australia 6-3. In Group B, Japan beat Venezuela 9-3 and the Netherlands tied with Russia 8-8. In Group C, Greece swept past France 7-1 and the US defeated Germany 10-4 to stay undefeated.
The American swim team, co-meet favorites along with Australia, projected confidence and poise in its meeting with the press.
"This event could be the top event in swimming that we have ever seen," American men's coach Dave Marsh said. "I think we are all postured for a thrilling meet."
American Michael Phelps was asked point-blank on Thursday: "Are you better than Ian Thorpe?"
The Baltimore native tugged briefly as his beige baseball cap, smiled broadly and replied: "I have a long way to go. How many Olympic medals does Thorpe have? I don't have any. So I think there's a difference there and hopefully in the next year we can see eye to eye."
Former Australian swim coach Don Talbot said Thursday any comparison was ludicrous.
"We know Phelps is a good boy, but people trying to say he's a greater swimmer than Ian -- that's absolute nonsense."
Thorpe won three golds and two silver medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and then six golds at the 2001 worlds in Fukuoka, Japan. He'll swim seven events in Barcelona -- 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle and the 200m individual medaly (IM).
Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday fought through a second-set slump to post a roller-coaster 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Damir Dzumhur in his opening match at the Cincinnati Open. The Spaniard, playing his first tournament since losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, raced through the first set, but completely lost his way in the second, dropping his serve twice against the 33-year-old Bosnian. Alcaraz regained his intensity and cut down his errors in the third set as a seventh ace took him to a match point that was converted when Dzumhur fired wide. “It was just a roller coaster,” said the second
Taiwan’s men’s basketball team on Monday clinched a spot in the FIBA Asia Cup quarter-finals with a 78-64 win over Jordan in Saudi Arabia, securing their best finish in the tournament since placing fourth in 2013. The win was sweet revenge for Taiwan, who were denied a quarter-final spot by Jordan at the same stage of the previous Asia Cup in 2022 after blowing a nine-point lead in the final minute and losing 97-96 on a half-court buzzer-beater. “History is part of the journey,” Taiwan head coach Gianluca Tucci said when asked about the 2022 collapse of the team, who he did
NEXT ROUND: World No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka opened their title defenses with straight-sets wins, while Iga Swiatek and Taylor Fritz also advanced Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka got their title defenses off to smooth starts as they powered into the third round of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday. The men’s and women’s top seeds, each ranked No. 1 in the world, were both competing for the first time since Wimbledon, where Sinner lifted the title and Sabalenka bowed out in the women’s semi-finals. Sinner crushed Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 6-1, 6-1 in steamy afternoon weather, while Sabalenka beat 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 6-1 under the lights of the night session. Sabalenka needed 54 minutes and a service break in the final game
Defending champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka on Wednesday led the way into the Cincinnati Open quarter-finals, with Carlos Alcaraz hot on their heels after a straight-sets victory of his own. Sinner shrugged off a mid-match weather delay lasting nearly three hours as he advanced 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) over Adrian Mannarino. Alcaraz, the second seed who has reached the final in his past six tournaments, hammered Italian lucky loser Luca Nardi 6-1, 6-4. After sweeping the opening set in 28 minutes, Alcaraz hit a speed bump, dropping his serve to trail 2-4. He promptly regained the break, then fought through a marathon ninth game
RSS