Essen, Germany, July 20 (UNI) China saw its first gold in swimming and added a diving title on Saturday, while Team USA collected four swimming golds to lead the medal table at the FISU World University Games.
Ai Yanhan earned China’s first gold from the swimming pool in women’s 100m freestyle with a time of 54.00 seconds. France’s Lison Nowaczyk was second trailing by 0.23 seconds and American Maxine Charlize Parker third lagging the winner by 0.30 seconds.
“The win was a surprise for me,” said Ai. “The result matched my personal best. It is a reassurance of my training from the last few years. I enjoyed this competition and it’s been great.”
Chinese divers finished one-two in the men’s platform with Zheng Junzhi scoring 455.10 points, 6.40 more than teammate Mo Yonghua. South Korea’s Kim Yeong-taek was third, 20.70 points behind the winner.
Team USA dominated swimming, earning four more golds from the pool. Jacob Ryan Mitchell finished first in the men’s 200m freestyle clocking 1:46.22, 0.55 seconds better than individual neutral athlete Nikolai Kolesnikov and 0.59 seconds ahead of his teammate Baylor William Nelson. Emma Lebron Weber was the winner in women’s 50m breaststroke in 30.67 seconds, beating South Africa’s Lara Van Niekerk by 0.07 seconds and Poland’s Barbara Anna Mazurkiewicz by 0.15 seconds. Mila Ilinishna Nikanorov clinched the women’s 800m freestyle title in 8:27.61, followed by Portugal’s Francisca Soares Martins (+3.15s) and Japan’s Ruka Takezawa (+3.34s).
“I count down the laps when I swim. Just having that in my head as a mantra is really helpful in an 800m,” said Nikanorov.
“Definitely to build throughout the race. My coach and I have just been working on building through because I usually go out pretty fast. I am really glad I was able to do that and be calm at the beginning of the race and then flip the end.”
USA had the fourth gold from mixed 4X100m medley relay in 3:44.40, followed by Poland (+2.74s) and South Africa (+3.94).
Japan pulled off its first swimming gold as Takumi Mori won the men’s 200m medley in 1:57.24. American Mitchell Hancock Schott was second trailing by 1.01s and Mori’s teammate Yuta Watanabe finished third, 1.30 seconds adrift of the leader.
Host Germany won the mixed team to see their second diving gold in 437.10 points, followed by China’s 429.10 and South Korea’s 400.10.
