Swimming’s newest World Record holder, Hungarian Katinka Hosszu, says that she’s satisfied with the decision to scratch the semi-final of the 100 back on Monday in order to chase a World Record in the 200 IM.
Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden celebrates after setting a women’s 100m butterfly world record next to Katerine Savard (right) of Canada at the Aquatics World Championships in Kazan, Russia, August 2, 2015 – Reuters picKAZAN, Aug 3 – Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom broke the women’s 100m butterfly record yesterday as Sun Yang and Katie Ledecky retained their 400m freestyle titles at the world championships. In the final, the Swede led at the turn and won by a body length, touching in 55.64 seconds.
Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen, the 50m butterfly world champion, took silver in 57.05 with China’s Lu Ying claiming bronze with 57.48.
Hosszu, nicknamed the Iron Lady of swimming who felt depressed after failing to earn any medal at London 2012, clocked 2:06.12 on Monday to win gold by 2.33 seconds over Japan’s Kanako Watanabe.
The 20-year-old world record holder claimed gold from Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa in 58.52 seconds, overtaking the Olympic champion in the final three strokes to win by 0.07 seconds and add to his European and Commonwealth collection.
“There is always lots of emotions before the race, so I am very happy and I have shown myself I can swim faster even with all the pressure”.
Britain’s Ross Murdoch took bronze at 0.57secs back.
Van der Burgh’s strategy was to go out fast and try to make Peaty catch him.
“I think I have a good chance in the 50m fly, not to break the record as that’s a really fast time”, she said.
“It was hard. A pile of bricks came down on me in the last five meters”, Van der Burgh said. “We knew it was going to be a close race”. 12 over Brazil’s Nicholas Santos.
American Ryan Lochte produced a superb performance to qualify fastest for the mens 200m freestyle final. Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh and Poland’s Konrad Czerniak tied for bronze.
Ms Yuliya Efimova, competing in her first major competition since her doping ban ended in February, topped qualification for the women’s 100m breaststroke final.
Ledecky, who also holds the 800m record, hinted she could yet send more records tumbling in today’s 1500m final after winning her heat by almost 27 seconds.
Australia s Mitchell Larkin was the fastest into the men s 100m backstroke final on Tuesday. Also advancing to Tuesday night’s final were Camille Lacourt of France and Olympic champion Matt Grevers of the United States.
