Sports

Peaty defends men's 100m breaststroke world title

July 25, 2017
From (L-R) Emma McKeon (silver) of Australia, Sarah Sjostrom (gold) of Sweden and Kelsi Worrell (bronze) of US pose with the medals after the Women's 100m Butterfly awarding ceremony at the 17th FINA World Aquatics Championships in Budapest on Monday. — Reuters
From (L-R) Emma McKeon (silver) of Australia, Sarah Sjostrom (gold) of Sweden and Kelsi Worrell (bronze) of US pose with the medals after the Women's 100m Butterfly awarding ceremony at the 17th FINA World Aquatics Championships in Budapest on Monday. — Reuters

BUDAPEST — Britain's Adam Peaty failed to beat his own world record but was happy to defend the men's 100m breaststroke title at the World Aquatic Championships on Monday.

Peaty clocked a new championships record of 57.47 seconds with Kevin Cordes of the United States second at 1.32 back with Russia's Kirill Prigoda third at 1.58. The 22-year-old was delighted to defend the world title he first won in Kazan two years ago with plenty of support from the Budapest crowd.

"A lot of hard work goes into competing and the crowd were amazing, I want to thank everyone out there," Peaty said after his win. "It was incredible, when I walked out I felt like I was in Britain, as everyone was cheering for me so much. I'm very happy, I put in a 26.5 seconds (for the first 50m), then built off that on the back end."

Peaty will now look to also defend his 50m world title in Wednesday's final in his bid to repeat the breaststroke sprint double he achieved in Kazan.

Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom was surprised to narrowly miss her own world-record in becoming the first woman to win four golds in the women's 100m butterfly on Monday.

The 23-year-old clocked 55.53 seconds, a new championships record, just 0.05sec from her own world record set at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics last year. She is the first reigning Olympic champion to add the world title in the event.

Australia's Emma McKeon took silver at 0.65sec back with Kelsi Worrell of the United States taking bronze at 0.84. Sjostrom broke the 100m freestyle record on Sunday, in the women's 4x100m relay, when she became the first woman to swim under 52 seconds.

Her victory in Budapest mirrors her 2009 success as a 15-year-old when the World Championships were held in Rome.

She failed to defend the 100m fly title in 2011 in Shanghai, but took gold at both the 2013 championships in Barcelona and two years ago in Kazan. The Swedish sprinter admitted feeling jaded after her freestyle world record on Sunday, but had been eager to get back in the pool. "I'm very happy with this gold, I didn't know what to expect today, as I was a bit tired after four races yesterday on the first day," she said.

Meanwhile, gold-medal machine Katie Ledecky cruised into the women's 1500m freestyle final from Monday's heats to stay on course for an historic 12th worlds gold. Ledecky was the fastest qualifier at 15 minutes, 47.54 seconds — nearly 18 seconds ahead of the field — to maintain her iron grip on the event.

"I feel good. I just wanted to have a good controlled easy swim and get a good lane for the final," said Ledecky. The unstoppable 20-year-old already picked up two golds on Sunday night, winning the 400m title for the third championships in a row, then helping the United States win the 4x100m relay.

That left her level with Missy Franklin on a record 11 gold medals at World Championships. Ledecky is on course to win her third title — of a possible six here — in Tuesday's 1500m final which would make her the first woman to win 12 World Championship golds.

Fresh from his 400m freestyle gold medal on Sunday, Sun Yang was the fastest through the men's 200m freestyle heats into Monday's semis, but admitted feeling jaded.

"I was a little tired, I didn't do my best in the heat, but I didn't have to," said the 25-year-old Chinese superstar.

Despite his fatigue, Sun clocked one minutes, 45.78 seconds with Britain's James Guy, the defending world champion, just 0.44secs back. Guy is determined to make amends for a disappointing sixth in the 400m final. "It's parked and we've done," he insisted.

"The 200m race felt so much better this morning, there was so much more control, I just feel more relaxed."

Mack Horton, who Sun defeated in the 400m final, finished 11th and 1.19secs adrift. "Obviously that was tough after yesterday, but with an evening and a bit more rest there should be a bit more," said Horton.

"It was always going to be tough backing up and trying to get into that semi, but I should be OK."

Katinka Hosszu, the Olympic champion, was the second fastest into the evening's 100m backstroke semi-finals, just 0.18 seconds behind Canada's Kylie Masse. Hosszu refused to speak to reporters after her heat.

Hungarian media reports claim she has pulled out of the semis to focus on the 200m individual medley final — her strongest event —which comes later on Monday night. Australia's Emily Seebohm, who won the world title two years ago in Kazan, was third fastest at 0.33secs behind Masse.

In the men's 100m backstroke heats, both the Olympic champion, Ryan Murphy of the US, and Australia's Mitch Larkin, the defending world champion made it through to the evening's semis.

The strength of the women's 100m breaststroke field shone through in the heats with Olympic champion Lilly King of the USA the fastest in 1:05.20 mins.

But both the defending world champion Yuliya Efimova of Russia, the Olympic silver medalist in Rio, and 2012 Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte were within a second of King. Olympic bronze medalist Katie Meili of the US and Taylor McKeown, the 200m Commonwealth champion, were also in the top five.

There is bad blood between King and Efimova, who served a 16-month doping ban until February 2015, then won the world five months later in Kazan.

Efimova won Olympic silver in Rio only after winning an appeal to be able to race, waving her finger signaling 'No1' after winning her semifinal.

"You wave your finger 'No 1' and you've been caught drug cheating ... I'm not a fan," retorted King in Rio last year.

The men's team also picked up gold in the men's 4x100m freestyle as the USA won both of the relays. — AFP


July 25, 2017
83 views
HIGHLIGHTS
Sports
day ago

Al Hilal sets new world record with 29 consecutive wins, Jorge Jesus shrugs off critics

Sports
4 days ago

Ittihad suffers a blow with Fabinho's injury

Sports
4 days ago

Saudi Football Federation reveals new design for King's Cup