Four-time Olympic medalist Kaitlin Sandeno of the US added a World University Games swimming gold to her collection on Friday, winning the 200m individual medley.
A former world record holder as part of the US 4x200m relay team that won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Sandeno finished in a Games-record time of 2 minutes, 12.13 seconds.
Yana Klochkova of the Ukraine, a former world record holder in the 400m individual medley, was second in 2 minutes, 13.15 seconds. Klochkova held the previous Games mark of 2 minutes, 13.32 seconds set in 2003.
PHOTO: AP
The two dueled throughout the race before Sandeno, competing in her first University Games, pulled away on the last lap. Svetlana Karpeeva of Russia was 1.2 seconds behind Klochkova to take bronze.
"It was a little bit of a double whammy," Sandeno said of winning the race and improving on Klochkova's record. "I wanted to break 12 [seconds] but I'll take it."
It was her first international medal since the 2004 Olympics.
"I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things," said Sandeno, who could swim in three more races here, including the 400m individual medley.
The US picked up its second swim gold of the night when the American men won the 4x100m freestyle relay in 3 minutes, 16.06seconds, more than 2.5 seconds ahead of second-place Canada.
The US have three golds overall at the games, all in the pool. The first came on Thursday when the US women's team won the freestyle relay over the same distance.
In other swim finals on Friday, Canadian Mackenzie Downing won the women's 100m butterfly in 58.88 seconds, Japan's Aya Terakawa took gold in the women's 50m backstroke and Germany's Britta Steffen won the women's 100m freestyle gold.
overall lead
Russia leads the overall gold medal lead with six thanks to the accuracy of its shooting team and wins in the women's shot put and pole vault.
On the second full day of medal events, Russia's 50m pistol team of Leonid Ekimov, Alexey Gnidchenko and Andrey Brayko won gold with a score of 1,658 points. Ekimov won gold on his own in the individual competition.
The US rebounded from a big loss against Lithuania to beat another men's basketball favorite on Friday.
The US, represented by the University of Northern Iowa, defeated Angola 84-26 to even their record at 1-1 in preliminary play.
On Tuesday, Lithuania beat the US 97-63 in a game in which the US never threatened to control, trailing 32-10 after the first period. On Friday, it was a different story, with the US leading Angola 23-5 after the opening quarter.
Jordan Egiseder led the US on Friday with 16 points, while captain Jared Josten added 13.
In 18 World University Games, the US has won 13 gold medals in men's basketball while posting an overall record of 125-7.
acclimatized
US coach Ben Jacobson said it was a case of his team getting used to the conditions.
"The game is so different than the college game, and Lithuania was our first experience in the international format," Jacobsen said. "Having one game under our belt in international play, and coming out to a physical game with Lithuania, we were much more ready to play today."
The US women, represented by the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, lost its first basketball game after two straight wins. Russia, led by Evgenia Belyakova's 24 points, won 78-42.
volleyball
The US men's volleyball team won its second straight match, beating Sweden 25-18, 25-21, 25-21.
US head coach Alan Knipe said his team, many of whom only practiced together for the first time a week ago, did a good job of adjusting during the match.
"We struggled to deal with the higher set -- it was slower than what we were used to," Knipe said. "But overall, the guys are starting to get comfortable playing with each other."
Elsewhere at the games on Friday, a senior doping control official said he expects advanced testing to yield drug cheats.
"There is tremendous pressure for athletes to excel, especially ahead of the Beijing Olympics next year," chairman of FISU Medical Commission Lawrence Rink said. "I am certain there will be positive tests ... there always are, unfortunately."
Rink said the games' Doping Control Service would conduct approximately 650 blood and urine sample tests -- compared with 400 tests in 2005 -- for some 9,000 athletes participating in the event that is held every two years.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed