Two Australians and one Japanese swimmer set world records Monday at the World Championships.
Matthew Welsh established a world record in winning the 50m butterfly gold, Leisel Jones established a new mark in the women's 100m breaststroke semifinals, and Kosuke Kitajima set a new standard in winning the men's 100m breaststroke gold medal.
In Monday's other medal events, American veteran Jenny Thompson won gold in the 100m butterfly and Yana Klochkova of the Ukraine won gold in the 200m individual medley.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Welsh covered his single swim down the pool in 23.43 seconds, beating the old record of 23.44 set by fellow Australian Geoff Huegill at the last worlds in Fukuoka, Japan. Afterward, Welsh looked over at Huegill, who finished fourth a few lanes down, with his arms wide apart in apparent disbelief.
"I had no pressure in that race being a backstroker," Welsh said. "I was really happy with my start and the kick felt fantastic all the way through."
Ian Crocker of the US won silver in 23.62, with bronze for Russian Evgeni Korotychkine in 23.73.
PHOTO: AFP
Barely 10 minutes after Welsh set his mark, Jones clocked 1:06.37 in the second semifinal heat of the 100 breaststroke, beating the old record of 1:06.52 set in 1999 by Penelope Heyns of South Africa.
"I think it was seeing Matt set a world record that inspired me," Jones said of her fellow Australian.
Kitajima's time of 59.78 in the men's 100m breaststroke came as three world marks fell in about 50 minutes in Palau Sant Jordi.
PHOTO: AP
The Japanese eclipsed the old record of 59.94 set by Roman Sloudnov of Russia in Fukuoka in 2001. Brendan Hansen of the US took silver in 1:00.21, with bronze for James Gibson of Britain in 1:00.37.
Monday was the second of eight days of pool action and the three world records were the first of the championships.
Thompson, an eight-time Olympic champion, captured her first major individual gold since 1998. All eight of her Olympic titles have come in relays.
PHOTO: AP
Thompson's time of 57.96 seconds beat silver medalist Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland (58.22) and bronze medalist Martina Moravcova of Slovakia (58.24).
"It's great to come back after a year-and-a-half off and have this kind of success, so I'm really happy," said Thompson, who recently completed her second year of medical school and is planning to break from her studies to compete in next year's Athens Olympics.
"It was very close and I put my head down for the last four strokes, which may not have been smart," she added. "I had a pretty long finish and luckily I was the first to touch the wall."
Klochkova won the women's 200 individual medley in 2:10.75, the third fastest time ever. Alice Mills of Australia claimed silver in 2:12.75 and Zhou Yafei of China took the bronze in 2:12.92.
Thompson's teammate Natalie Coughlin finished eighth out of eight swimmers in the 100 butterfly final.
Earlier, Coughlin failed to qualify for the 100 backstroke semifinals, citing illness as the reason.
The American swam 1:03.18 in the backstroke, more than three seconds off her world record-time of 59.58 seconds set last year.
Coughlin, who said she has been ill since Saturday, apparently was weakened by her strong performance in the opening leg of the Americans' gold-medal effort in the 400 freestyle relay on Sunday night.
The 20-year-old California native has entered seven events -- the 100m and 200m backstroke, 100 free and 100m fly, plus three relays. She has been called the best American female swimmer in a generation and was billed to lead a strong US team with 18-year-old star Michael Phelps.
"Thankfully I have a couple of days off," Coughlin said. "Hopefully I'll get stronger and be ready to go."
Australian star Ian Thorpe (1:47.20) finished second to Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband (1:46.32) in the semifinals of the 200 freestyle. Thorpe, the world record-holder in the event, also was behind Van den Hoogenband in Monday morning's qualifying.
Antje Buschulte of Germany led the women's 100m backstroke semifinals in 1:00.61 and Aaron Peirsol of the US was fastest in the men's semifinals in 54.28.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier