Australia's Horton continues golden run as Championship records tumble

Australia’s Mack Horton continued his golden run as another five Championship records tumbled in the second finals session of the 4th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships at Hamdan Sports Complex in Dubai on Tuesday.

Horton picked up another individual gold to add to his two (400m and 4x100m relay) from the first day of competition, finishing the 200m freestyle in 1:47.55, a new Championship record.
He had a tough contest with Great Britain’s James Guy, and both have now established themselves as potential senior world champions of the future.

Horton was pleased and relieved to take the gold, saying “I had a great race, I went out fast and just tried to hang in there. I had to dig really deep to get there.

“My motivation was to swim as fast as the team who went to the World Championships, I just missed out on that”.

With three more events yet to swim, including his pet 1,500m, Horton will have all eyes on him for the rest of the week.

James Guy had to be satisfied with his second silver in two days with 1:48.18, but said “I am happy for Mack, he’s had a great meet so far. I’ve had a long season though, coming off the back of Barcelona and I’m really feeling it now. But I’m happy to still be swimming these times when I am tired, so it’s a good result”.

Andrea D’Arrigo of Italy finished with the bronze in 1:48.28.

Several countries made the podium for the first time with Greece taking out the first event of the evening session, the boys 100m backstroke.

Apostolos Christou had qualified in second place for the final but managed to produce a Championship record-breaking swim to win the final in 54.87, ahead of Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys and Russia’s Grigory Tarasevich.

Another country on the podium for the first time was Hungary, as Liliana Szilagyi took silver behind the USA’s Kathryn McLaughlin, who finished in 2:08.72.

McLaughlin picked up her second gold of the event after also wining the 4 x 200m relay on Day 1. Szilagyi finished in 2:09.46, ahead of Misuzu Yabu of Japan in 2:10.76.

After a very close finish McLaughlin said “it was a hard race but I’m really happy with how it ended. She (Szilagyi) pushed me a lot and it was fun racing next to her. This is probably one of the highest things I’ve ever done because I’ve never been to an international meet. So it’s pretty cool”.

Szilagyi’s silver medal is the first for Hungary in the history of the Junior World Championships as they have never competed before. Szilagyi was delighted to realise she had made history, saying “Oh my God, I’m happy about that, I didn’t really think about it”.

Szilagyi’s historic performance was a poignant moment though as her grandfather who had been a three-time Olympic water polo champion for Hungary passed away a week ago, and she had made a promise to win a gold for him. “If I don’t do it today then in my next race here,” she said.

Lithuania’s star Ruta Meilutyte took her first gold in her first final with an outstanding performance in the 50m breaststroke, winning in a championship record of 29.86.

Her time broke the record she had set in the semifinals, and was only .42 off her world record set at the World Championships in Barcelona last month.

“I was aiming for high 29s, so I’m happy with that. A pb (personal best) isn’t quite there yet. I’m feeling ok, it’s very exciting to be doing so many races,” she said later.

Ukraine’s Viktoriya Solnceva took the silver in 31.34, with Sophie Taylor of Great Britain in third with 31.38.
 
Russia then took out the next two finals, with Ilya Khomenko taking another Championship record in the boys 100m backstroke in 1:00.88, ahead of his countryman and European Junior Champion Vsevolod Zanko in 1.01.10. Kohei Goto of Japan took the bronze in 1:01.39.

Daria Ustinova, who took four gold at the European Juniors, took Russia’s second gold of the night in the girls 100m backstroke with a time of 1:01.05.

Ustinova just edged out the USA’s Kathleen Baker in 1:01.18, with Jessica Fullalove of Great Britain taking the bronze.

Another Championship record fell in the next event the boys 200m IM, with Joseph 'Gunnar' Bentz of the US pulling out a miraculous finish to just pip Semen Makovich of Russia. Bentz finished in 1:59.44, with Makovich just behind in 1:59.50.

Two breaths in the last few metres cost Makovich the title as Bentz went hard for the wall, overtaking the Russian in the final strokes. Keita Sunama took Japan’s second bronze of the night in 1:59.74.

Bentz was delighted with his win, saying “It was great to go under 2, I’ve been trying to for ages. Andrew (Seliskar) did in this morning, and I wanted to better his time. I had no idea where he (Makovitch) was, I just went for it”.

Australia took the last individual gold of the evening with rising star Alanna Bowles dominating the field in the women’s 800m to take a comfortable victory by over five seconds in 8:32.68.

Rebecca Mann of the US was second in 8:37.85, with Linda Caponi of Italy third in 8:38.42.

Fifteen year-old Bowles was thrilled to win the title of World Junior Champion in her first international meet.

“I’m over the moon, the race felt pretty great and I felt strong from the start. I knew I wanted to win and to dominate from the start and that’s what I did”.

Bowles had earlier placed fourth in the 200m butterfly, and still has the 200m and 400m free to swim this week.

The last event of the evening had the crowd on their feet as the 4x100m mixed medley relay final was run for the first time at a World Junior Championship.

With each team entering two girls and two boys who can swim in any order, the lead changes hands often and unpredictably.

After establishing a great early lead Lithuania fell back but managed to hang on for silver behind the strong Russian team of Daria Ustinova, Vsevolod Zanko, Svetlana Chimrova and Evgeny Sedov who finished in 3:48.89, a new Championships record.

Lithuania finished in 3:52.52, with the US in third in 3:52.63.

Meilutyte, picking up her second medal of the night, was happy with the silver, saying “It was a lot of fun, and it’s so good to have Lithuania winning medals”.

In semifinals earlier in the evening European four time gold medallist Rozaliy Nasretdinova of Russia qualified fastest in the girls 100m freestyle, with Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania and Cierra Runge of the US second and third fastest respectively.

In the boys 100m butterfly, Matthew Josa of the US and his team mate Justin Lynch qualified first and second, ahead of Pedro Vieira of Brazil.

Australia and the US now share the top of the gold medal table with four each, with the US and Russia tied for overall with 8 medals each from two days of competition.

Nearly 800 swimmers from 91 nations have gathered in Dubai to contest the Championships which is for the top juniors in the world, girls aged 14-17 and boys aged 15-18, making this the largest World Junior Swimming Championships since its inception in 2006.

The Championships run from August 26-31, with heats each day from 10am-1.00pm, and semifinals and finals each night from 6-8.30pm.

Tickets are Dh20 per day or Dh80 for the week, and are available at the door during the event. The Hamdan Sports Complex is on Emirates Road (previously Dubai Bypass Road).

A free bus service will operate each day from the Mall of the Emirates and Dubai Mall for the morning and evening sessions. All details are on the event facebook page.

All the information about the Championships can be found at www.fina-dubai2013.com, and on the Facebook page FINAWJSCDubai2013.




 

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