Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom yesterday limbered up for a world sprint double with the fastest 50m freestyle heat as a fatal nightclub accident shook the World Aquatics Championships.
Eight athletes were among the injured after a balcony at a nightclub in Gwangju collapsed in yesterday’s early hours, sending party-goers plummeting more than 5m onto people below. Athletes among the people injured were from the US, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Brazil and Italy.
In the pool, Sjostrom clocked 24.26 seconds to top the women’s 50m free preliminaries ahead of Australia’s Cate Campbell (24.40) and American Simone Manuel (24.41) as the trio resumed battle after Friday’s 100m final.
“It is what it is,” Campbell said the morning after claiming silver behind defending champion and Olympic gold medalist Manuel in the 100m. “It is a little bittersweet. I’ve managed to get on the podium every time I’ve swum the 100 at a world championship, which is a pretty remarkable achievement in itself, so I’m focusing on the positives.”
Sjostrom, who took bronze in the 100m free, was poised to become the first woman to win three world championship gold medals in the 50m butterfly before yesterday evening’s finals.
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri qualified fastest for the men’s 1,500m freestyle final in a time of 14 minutes, 45.80 seconds as the Olympic champion chases a world title treble in the pool’s toughest event.
The Italian will look to crack Sun Yang’s world record of 14 minutes, 31.02 seconds in this weekend’s final, with the Chinese giant choosing not to contest the 1,500m.
Sun, who retained his 200m and 400m freestyle titles this week, has been the target of protests from athletes following bombshell claims in a leaked International Swimming Federation doping panel report that alleged he allowed blood samples to be smashed with a hammer after a visit from testers last year.
American Lilly King, who has been critical of Sun in South Korea, fired off a 30.18 to go second-fastest in the heats of the women’s 50m breaststroke as she looks to defend the title she won in 2017.
Sun departed the championships after China finished a distant sixth in Friday’s 4x200m freestyle, but not before firing a parting shot at his critics.
“I shouldn’t have to put up with these kinds of insults,” said the three-time Olympic gold medalist, who insisted that he was standing up for all athletes by refusing to allow what he called “unlicensed” testers take his samples.
“I’m protecting myself and all athletes. Everything I have said is true, I have nothing to prove,” he added.
American superstar Caeleb Dressel could add two more gold medals to the three he has already bagged this week when he attempts to retain his 50m free and 100m fly titles.
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
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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
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with