Taiwanese Olympian Wang Kuan-hung yesterday qualified for tonight’s men’s 200m butterfly final at the World Aquatics Championships, squeezing into the top eight with a time of 1 minute, 54.97 seconds.
Earlier in the day, he finished fourth overall in the qualifying heats with a time of 1:55.17, 0.96 seconds behind Japanese Olympic silver medalist Tomoru Honda.
The 21-year-old Taiwanese won a silver medal in the men’s 200m butterfly at the FINA Swimming World Cup meet in Singapore on Nov. 16, 2018, with a time of 1:52.38, and in 2019 won a silver medal in the men’s 200m butterfly at the Toyota US Open Championships in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1:55.82.
Photo: Reuters
He also won bronze medals in the 200m butterfly at last year’s Swimming World Cup meets in Berlin and Toronto, finishing in 1:51.04 and 1:51.15 respectively, and competed for Taiwan at the Tokyo Olympics.
French star Leon Marchand swam second-fastest in yesterday’s semi-final in 1:54.21, easing into the final a day after smashing Michael Phelps’ last remaining world record.
Marchand won the men’s 400m individual medley on the opening night of competition on Friday, coming home in 4:02.50, more than a second off Phelps’ benchmark of 4:03.84.
Photo: AFP
Set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it was the longest-held world record in swimming.
Also yesterday, Britain’s Matthew Richards won the men’s 200m freestyle title in 1:44.30, Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte won the women’s 100m breaststroke title in 1:04.62 and American Ryan Murphy won the men’s 100m backstroke final in 52.22 seconds.
It was the US’ second gold medal of the night, after Katie Ledecky won the women’s 1,500m freestyle earlier in the evening.
Australian Kaylee McKeown took home the women’s 100m backstroke title in 57.53 seconds, beating Regan Smith of the US on 57.78 and American Katharine Berkoff on 58.25.
SHOCK KNOCKOUT: US Open finalist Ben Shelton was caught off-guard by Arthur Gea yesterday, after skipping the Japan Open, which ended last week, due to fitness concerns Daniil Medvedev has won his first match since being disqualified at the China Open for hitting a spectator in the eye with a ball he hit into the stands. Medvedev beat Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a second-round match on Saturday at the Shanghai Masters, an ATP 1000 tennis event. Medvedev, who now holds a 10-2 career edge over Struff, had been disqualified during his semi-final on Monday last week against Novak Djokovic for hitting the spectator with a ball the Russian player had hit into the stands at Beijing. Medvedev, who apologized after the incident, saying it was an accident, lost
COMPETiTIVE FINISH: Powering through the tournament in China, Lin Yun-ju finished second, losing in the final to the world No. 1 in a close-fought match Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju finished second in the men’s singles at the World Table Tennis (WTT) China Smash on Sunday in the final against world No. 1 Sora Matsushima of Japan. Lin, the world No. 6, recovered from a loss in the first two games to take a 3-2 lead, but was overtaken by Matsushima, who won the match 4-3. In the 55-minute final at Shougang Park in Beijing, Lin finished as the runner-up, with game scores of 7-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5, 7-11, 9-11. Lin entered Sunday’s final with a 6-1 career record against Matsushima, although the Japanese player had won their
SAFETY CONCERNS: The Asian Cup is still expected to take place in Saudi Arabia next year, despite multiple sporting events being postponed after the Houthi attack in Riyadh The Asian Cup soccer tournament is on track to take place in Saudi Arabia early next year, local organizers said yesterday, but golf’s Asian Tour has postponed the Saudi International indefinitely in the aftermath of a deadly attack on Riyadh. Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement claimed responsibility for the strike on Riyadh’s international airport, which killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 300. Australia also withdrew its team from the urban cycling World Championships yesterday, citing safety concerns over travelling to Riyadh, where the event is scheduled to take place early next month. The Six Kings Slam exhibition tennis tournament in Riyadh
Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer gave away the Bundesliga’s fastest ever goal, Rayo Vallecano fans forced their La Liga game to be suspended and Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior was sent off for yanking the hair of an opponent on Saturday. Arsenal also got a win to keep their lead as Europe’s national leagues resumed after an extended international break. Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said his team’s visit to Augsburg was a “priority game” after their only league loss against Augsburg in Munich last season, but he cannot have imagined making a worse start to what ultimately ended in a 2-2 draw
RSS