MADRID, 30 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The 20th World Swimming Championships, held in Fukuoka (Japan), closed this Sunday with another gold medal for the Swedish Sarah Sjöström, a very tight finish in the 1,500-meter freestyle, the double redemption of the United States in the 4×100 medley and with the Spanish delegation without presence in the evening session due to his discreet performance precisely in the relay.
In this sense, Spain did not go beyond the morning preliminaries. In the men’s event, Hugo González gave up the baton in the backstroke as second (53.64), while Carles Coll in the breaststroke (1.00.45) and Mario Mollà in the butterfly (51.78) maintained fourth place; César Castro closed in the free with 49.26, leaving the Spanish quartet in sixth place in their series and fourteenth overall.
In women, Carmen Weiler (backstroke) finished sixth with 1.01.46, while Jessica Vall (breaststroke), Paula Juste (butterfly) and Ainhoa Campabadal (free) remained ninth with partial times of 1.08.32, 1.00. 27 and 55.80; his total time was 4.05.85, occupying the twentieth position of all the participating quartets.
In the individual aspect, the two preliminary series were held in the 400-meter styles, with Alba Vázquez finishing eighth in her career thanks to a time of 4.42.11; she was fifteenth in the overall count. Meanwhile, Emma Carrasco swam her series well until the crawl section, finishing in 4.50.83 and being the twenty-eighth of the general summary.
The evening round of finals opened in the men’s 50 backstroke with gold won by American Hunter Armstrong (24.05), against his compatriot Justin Ress (24.24) and beating Chinese Jiayu Xu (24.50). In the women’s 50 breaststroke, the Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte was proclaimed champion and did so with a new world record (29.16).
In the men’s 1,500 freestyle, Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui triumphed in 14:31.54 to break the championship record and also the African record. However, he was just five hundredths ahead of American Bobby Finke, who set a new Americas record; the bronze went to Australian Samuel Short (14:37.28).
Then came the turn of the laureate Sarah Sjöström, who won another title in the 50 free with a record of 23.62; during the semifinal held several minutes earlier, the Swede had set a new world record at 23.61. The Australian Shayna Jack (24.10) and the Chinese Yufei Zhang (24.15) could do little to avoid her glory.
In the 400 IM test, now without the Spanish Vázquez and Carrasco, the gold was awarded to the Canadian Summer McIntosh with a new championship record (4:27.11). In second position finished the American Katie Grimes (4:31.41) and the Australian Jenna Forrester (4:32.30) completed the podium.
And the culmination of this World Cup in the waters of Fukuoka was the golden double for the USA in both 4×100 medleys, winning the men’s race (3:27.20) with a formidable Ryan Murphy and then winning the women’s race (3:52.08) after a good last post from Kate Douglass.