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.
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