Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Ding Xu
NANJING, China, August 21. Sprints took center stage during the fifth night of the Youth Olympic Games.
Scheduled Events
- Men’s 800 free fastest heat
- Women’s 100 fly semis
- Men’s 100 free semis
- Women’s 50 free semis
- Men’s 50 fly finals
- Women’s 50 back finals
- Men’s 50 breast semis
- Women’s 400 free relay
FINALS
Men’s 800 free
Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Yang Lei
Egypt’s Akram Ahmed, a future USC Gamecock, took down the Egyptian record in the distance freestyle event with a 7:54.29 tonight. That swim smashed the previous record of 8:02.26 set by Marwan El Kamash at the 2013 Egyptian Nationals, and gave Akram all three distance records in the 400-800-1500 freestyle events.
Ahmed’s Splits:
50m
27.49 (3)
27.49
100m
57.14 (3)
29.65
150m
1:27.22 (3)
30.08
200m
1:57.37 (3)
30.15
250m
2:27.41 (2)
30.04
300m
2:57.49 (2)
30.08
350m
3:27.38 (2)
29.89
400m
3:57.37 (2)
29.99
450m
4:27.21 (2)
29.84
500m
4:57.20 (2)
29.99
550m
5:27.11 (2)
29.91
600m
5:57.25 (1)
30.14
650m
6:26.80 (1)
29.55
700m
6:56.54 (1)
29.74
750m
7:25.72 (1)
29.18
800m
7:54.29 (1)
28.57
Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk took second in 7:56.34 with Norway’s Henrik Christiansen placing third in 7:57.07.
Poland’s Wojciech Wojdak (8:02.38), Estonia’s Marcelo Acosta (8:02.69), USA’s Patrick Ransford (8:04.46), Moldova’s Alexei Sancov (8:06.54) and Croatia’s Sven Saemundsson (8:06.72) also made the top eight in the timed final event.
Men’s 50 fly
Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Yang Lei
China’s Yu Hexin kept on being successful here in Nanjing with yet another gold medal as he already won the 50 free and helped China to a win in the 400 free relay. Yu powered his way to a 23.69 to top the sprint fly tonight.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Dylan Carter finished second in 23.81 with The Netherlands’ Mathys Goosen earning third in 24.13.
Russia’s Aleksandr Sadovnikov (24.16), Norway’s Armin Porobic (24.25), China’s Li Zhuhao (24.34), Estonia’s Daniel Zaitsev (24.57) and Latvia’s Janis Saltans (24.66) rounded out the championship eight.
Women’s 50 back
Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Youth Olympic Games
The Netherlands’ Maaike de Waard moved into the top 20 in the world with a smoking time of 28.36 in the sprint backstroke event. Great Britain’s Jessica Fullalove finished second in 28.66 with New Zealand’s Gabrielle Fa’amausili placing third in 28.69.
Canada’s Danielle Hanus (28.91), USA’s Clara Smiddy (28.91), New Zealand’s Bobbi Gichard (29.02), Greece’s Eleni Koutsouveli (29.30) and Russia’s Irina Prikhodko (29.34) placed fourth through eighth.
Women’s 400 free relay
Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Ding Xu
China ran away with another relay victory as Qiu Yuhan (54.93), He Yun (58.58), Zhang Yufei (54.09) and Shen Duo (53.59) checked in with a 3:41.19 for the win. Shen had yet another monster anchor leg as she’s become a go-to swimmer for China.
China’s Splits:
QIU Yuhan 0.61 26.60 54.93 (1) 54.93
HE Yun 0.33 28.26 58.58 (3) 1:53.51
ZHANG Yufei 0.25 25.97 54.09 (2) 2:47.60
SHEN Duo 0.37 26.06 53.59 (1) 3:41.19
Russia’s Rozaliya Nasretdinova (55.65), Daria Ustinova (54.85), Irina Prihodko (56.52) and Daria Mullakaeva (55.37) took second in 3:42.39 with Australia’s Brianna Throssell (55.78), Ella Bond (57.31), Amy Forrester (57.42) and Ami Matsuo (53.93) taking third in 3:44.44.
The Netherlands (3:45.92), Brazil (3:46.34), Germany (3:51.12), USA (3:51.37) and Canada (3:54.03) also swam in the finale.
SEMIFINALS
Women’s 100 fly
Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Ju Huanzong
Hungary’s Liliana Szilagyi, who already won the 200 fly earlier this week, put herself in a strong position to win another title as she clocked a 58.50 in the 100. That’s not far off Svetlana Chimrova’s World Junior Record of 58.34.
Szilagyi’s Splits:
50m
27.68 (1)
27.68
100m
58.50 (1)
30.82
China’s Zhang Yufei (58.78) and Australia’s Brianna Throssell (59.89) also broke 1:00 to fill out the top three out of semis.
Korea’s Park Jinyoung (1:00.02), Italy’s Claudia Tarzia (1:00.26), Great Britain’s Charlotte Atkinson (1:00.27), Czech’s Lucie Svecena (1:00.33) and Norway’s Elise Naess Olsen (1:00.41) also will swim in the finale.
Men’s 100 free
Brazil’s Matheus de Santana, the World Junior Record holder with a 48.35 from Brazilian Nationals, easily topped semis with a 49.30.
Santana’s Splits:
50m
24.02 (2)
24.02
100m
49.30 (1)
25.28
The Netherlands’ Kyle Stolk (49.78), and Italy’s Alessandro Bori (49.91) also broke 50 seconds to qualify second and third.
Canada’s Javier Acevedo (50.15), China’s Yu Hexin (50.26), Great Britain’s Duncan Scott (50.33), Poland’s Jan Holub (50.41) and Germany’s Damian Wierling (50.42) clinched the other transfer spots into the finale.
Women’s 50 free
Russia’s Rozaliya Nasretdinova raced her way to the top seed in the finale with a 25.20. She will be gunning for her 24.95 World Junior Record set at Russian Nationals this year.
Australia’s Ami Matsuo took second in 25.40 with Russia’s Daria Ustinova placing third in 25.42.
Luxembourg’s Julie Meynen (25.60), China’s Qiu Yuhan (25.61), Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (25.69), Slovenia’s Nastja Govejsek (25.90) and Slovenia’s Tjasa Pintar (25.94) will also vie for the YOG title in the championship heat.
Men’s 50 breast
Croatia’s Nikola Obrovac had the fastest time in semis with a 28.00, while Venezuela’s Carlos Claverie placed second in 28.19. Russia’s Anton Chupkov earned third in 28.50.
China’s Zhang Zhihao (28.57), Hungary’s David Horvath (28.55), Japan’s Ippei Watanabe (28.74), South AFrica’s Chad Crous (28.79) and Egypt’s Mohamed Khalaf (28.84) also picked up spots in the finale.
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