Monday in Budapest was great for Italy and Romania, superb for the young and, as so often at the FINA World Championships, good for the experienced from the US.
Italy’s Thomas Ceccon, 21, broke the first world record of the championships as he won the 100m backstroke. It was the second gold of the competition for Italy after Nicolo Martinenghi took the 100m breaststroke title the previous night.
In less than an hour, Italy had a third gold, as Benedetta Pilato won the women’s 100m breaststroke.
Photo: AFP
Pilato was the second 17-year-old to win on Monday and the third to take a medal. David Popovici, a 17-year-old Romanian, had seized the men’s 200m freestyle title.
Continuing the evening’s trend of 17-year-old medalists, Claire Curzan of the US took bronze in the women’s 100m backstroke.
Katie Ledecky — who, at 25, was the oldest winner of the evening by three years — reclaimed the 1,500m freestyle title. Her 20-year-old compatriot Regan Smith retained her 100m backstroke title.
Photo: AFP
Wining in 51.60 seconds, Ceccon shaved a quarter of a second off the 100m backstroke world record.
“Today, nobody could beat me. What a sensational time: 51.6,” he said.
Ceccon took the record off the US’ Ryan Murphy, who finished 0.37 seconds behind in second.
In a sport in which most competitors obsessively shave body hair, Ceccon has drawn comments for his moustache. Asked whether it has become a lucky charm, he shrugged.
“It’s just a moustache,” he said.
In the men’s 200m butterfly semi-finals, Taiwan’s Wang Kuan-hung, 20, failed to qualify for the final. He finished his heat in 1:56.23, 3.84 seconds behind the event leader, Kristof Milak of Hungary, who finished in 1:52.39.
Martinenghi was back in the pool on Monday dominating the 50m breaststroke qualifying. She has a world record, set last year, and a world championship medal, from 2019, both in the 50m breaststroke.
“Before the race, I was crying with joy for Thomas, who made me relive the sensations I felt when I set the world record and now, here I am with gold around my neck,” she said.
Pilato edged Germany’s Anna Elendt by 0.05 seconds, with Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte at 0.09 seconds.
Popovici took the 200m freestyle in 1:43.21 to break the world junior record that he set in qualifying.
“We just love swimming — we are just ordinary people doing amazing things, I think,” he said.
Popovici overhauled Olympic champion Tom Dean in the third lap of the 50m event.
Another teenager, 19-year-old South Korean Hwang Sun-woo, grabbed second, while Dean held on for third.
Popovici became the first Romanian man to win a world swimming title and said he was looking forward to making the short trip home.
“At the airport, chaos is going to ensue,” he said. “We saw that when I came from Tokyo, where I had fourth place. I’m ready for it and for a little celebration.”
Even at 17, Pilato and Popovici talked mental preparation for races.
“I can’t really sleep during the day,” Popovici said. “Sleeping is not the most important thing. What is important is disconnecting yourself from the world ... from social media, your phone ... anything that gets in the way of achieving my goals.”
“I have also overcome the anxiety, and learned to take things calmly,” Pilato said, referring to struggles she had at the Tokyo Olympics.
Ledecky cruised to victory in the 1,500m freestyle in 15:30.15, while compatriot Katie Grimes finished 14.74 seconds behind.
Ledecky had won three straight 1,500m world titles before illness ousted her from the 2019 final in Gwangju, South Korea. She won gold in the Tokyo Olympics.
Smith won the 2019 100m women’s backstroke world title, but was third in last year’s Olympics.
She made the most of the absence of Tokyo gold medalist Kaylee McKeown of Australia and took revenge on the silver medalist, Canada’s Kylie Masse, who was second this time.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Standout Filipino college basketball player Ricci Rivero said he wants to start his professional career by playing in the P.League+ as opposed to other leagues in Asia because of the sizeable Philippine community in Taiwan, his new team the Taoyuan Pilots said on Monday. “There are nearly 150,000 Filipinos living and working in Taiwan, the mere thought of playing in front of them and being the first to represent them in one of Taiwan’s best basketball leagues is already a big motivation for me to choose Taiwan over other Asian basketball leagues,” Rivero said in a Taoyuan Pilots statement. Although
Taipei Municipal Fulin Elementary School’s baseball team yesterday beat South Korea in the regional final to win the right to represent the Asia-Pacific region in this year’s Little League Baseball World Series. The Taiwan team’s 1-0 victory over hosts South Korea was largely down to the excellent performance of starting pitcher Liao Kuan-shu, who pitched six scoreless innings, in which he only gave up two hits at Hwaseong Dream Park in South Korea. After Taiwan earned a single in the bottom of the second inning, Liao in the third hit a two-out double, helping to eke out a 1-0 victory, as they
Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying was knocked out of the Malaysia Open yesterday, losing her women’s singles semi-final against Chen Yufei of China 19-21, 21-13, 21-15. Despite two previous victories for second-seeded Tai against Chen this season — including her win in the final of the Thailand Open — fourth-seeded Chen dispatched the world No. 2 in 1 hour, 8 minutes at Kuala Lumpur’s Axiata Arena, securing a spot in the Super 750 tournament’s final. Tai won the opening game of the last-four matchup, scoring two consecutive points after the score was tied 19-19. However, she had a horrific points drought after the
Tennis star Nick Kyrgios is due to face a court in Australia after being summonsed to face a charge of assaulting a former girlfriend. The 27-year-old Australian is to appear in court in the capital, Canberra, next month. Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Policing on Tuesday confirmed that Kyrgios had been summonsed to face a charge of assaulting his former girlfriend. It relates to an incident in Canberra in December last year. “ACT Policing can confirm a 27-year-old Watson man is scheduled to face the ACT Magistrates Court on [Aug. 2] in relation to one charge of common assault following an incident in December 2021,”
RSS