US teenager Michael Andrew and Jesse Puts of the Netherlands were upset winners on Friday at the Short Course World Swimming Championships in Windsor, Canada.
The 17-year-old Andrew, whose age-group success has seen him tipped as a multi-medal threat in the mold of Olympic superstar Michael Phelps, won the 100m individual medley in 51.84 seconds.
He edged Daiya Seto, Japan’s Olympic bronze medalist at the Rio de Janeiro Games, who took silver in 52.01 seconds, with Japan’s Shinri Shioura earning bronze in 52.17 seconds.
Photo: AP
World record holder Vladimir Morozov settled for equal sixth, shortly after anchoring Russia to victory in the men’s 4x50m freestyle relay.
Aleksei Brianskii, Nikita Lobintsev, Aleksandr Popkov and Morozov clocked 1 minute, 24.51 seconds to claim gold ahead of the US and Japan in the sprint relay that opened the evening’s action.
Russian swimmers were all business, ending the night with a win in the men’s 200m freestyle relay.
Photo: AP
Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Mikhail Vekovishchev and Artem Lobuzov had Russia lying fourth when anchor Aleksandr Krasnykh hit the water. He powered to the front for a victory in 6 minutes, 52.10 seconds, with the US second in 6 minutes, 53.34 seconds and Japan third in 6 minutes, 53.54 seconds.
Puts pulled off the upset in the men’s 50m freestyle, pulling away in lane seven to win in 21.1 seconds and edge Russia’s Morozov by 0.04 seconds.
Lithuania’s Simonas Bilis settled for bronze in 21.23 seconds.
Hungarian Katinka Hosszu’s gold medal binge continued with a triumph in the 100m individual medley, her fifth gold of the championships.
Hosszu clocked 57.24 seconds to take the gold ahead of Australian Emily Seebohm (57.97 seconds), with bronze going to Jamaican Alia Atkinson (58.04 seconds).
Swimming’s “Iron Lady,” winner of three gold medals in Rio, added another crown to those she had already earned this week in the 200m butterfly, 100m and 200m backstroke and 400m individual medley.
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
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