Four world records went down on night four of the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London as the Ukraine’s Bohdan Hrynenko, China’s Wang Lichao and the Netherlands’ Rogier Dorsman and Liesette Bruinsma took down the records on Thursday night. Additionally, Canada’s Aurelie Rivard, Ukraine’s Oleksii Fedyna, Germany’s Elena Krawzow, Great Britain’s Rebecca Redfern, Germany’s Verena Scott and Italy’s Arianna Talamona broke championship records.
Men’s 100 Breast
Oleksii Fedyna of the Ukraine got the night started in London with a 1:04.62 in the SB12 100 breast final as he broke the championship record. Fedyna missed his own world record of 1:04.07 from 2014 as he is still at the top of his game five years later. Fedyna finished just in front of Uladzimir Izotau (1:05.01) of Belarus. Vali Israfilov of Azerbaijan won the bronze medal with a 1:06.01.
Germany’s Taliso Engel won the SB13 100 breast final with a 1:05.20 as he was in a close race with Uzbekistan’s Firdavsbek Musabekov (1:05.49) and Belarus’ Ihar Boki (1:05.50), who won a gold medal yesterday in the 100 free.
Women’s 100 Breast
Germany’s Elena Krawzow (1:13.62) broke the championship record in the SB12 100 breast final as she also missed her own world record of 1:12.71 from earlier this year. Krawzow won by two seconds over Russia’s Daria Lukyanenko (1:15.88), who was joined by teammate Mariia Latritskaia (1:16.19) on the podium.
Great Britain’s Rebecca Redfern won the SB13 100 breast final as she won the first gold medal of the night for the home team with a new championship record of 1:14.73. Redfern won ahead of USA’s Colleen Young (1:16.14) and Japan’s Ayano Tsujiuchi (1:19.85).
South Africa’s Alani Ferreira broke the African record with a 1:23.86 for seventh place.
Afterwards a delighted Redfern struggled for words, saying:
“How amazing is that. I have no words! To be up there with the likes of Maisie (Newton-Summers) who has won gold already and to be classed as one of the World Champions is incredible.”
Asked about race preparations before these Championships, Redfern continued:
“I’ve been working a lot on stroke rates so I had that 1-2-3-4 in my head the whole way and just kept that stroke rate. I think that helped me bring it back in the last 50. I’ve not been in a big race since Rio so to be able to do it in front of a home crowd is amazing. I knew that my mum was in the crowd and I wanted to make everyone proud.”
Young had this to say about winning the silver:
“Medaling at any international competition is a huge honor. A silver at worlds is incredible,” Young said. “There are definitely some things I need to work on going into Tokyo, but I’m ready for the year ahead. Working hard, training hard and fixing the little things. That last 25 meters hurt a lot, so I know I can definitely build that last endurance of the 100. My stroke tempo definitely decreased throughout that race. Little things like that make all the difference.”
Men’s 100 Back
The first world record of the night fell to Bohdan Hrynenko of the Ukraine, who won the S7 100 back final with a 1:08.92. He broke the world record of 1:09.15 that Jonathan Fox of Great Britain set in 2016. Hrynenko won the gold ahead of Russia’s Andrei Gladkov (1:09.60) and Argentina’s Pipo Carlomagno (1:09.69), who broke the Americas record for the bronze.
Dino Sinovcic got Croatia on the podium with a 1:15.46 to win the S6 100 back final by 0.01 over China’s Yang Hong (1:15.47). Argentina’s Matias de Andrade also got Argentina its first medal of the night with a 1:16.91 for the bronze.
Women’s 100 Back
USA’s Elizabeth Marks won the S7 100 back final with a 1:21.05 as she won the Americans’ first gold medal of the night. She won ahead of Canada’s Shelby Newkirk (1:21.58), who picked up Canada’s first medal of the day for the silver. Switzerland’s Nora Meister (1:22.98) won the bronze medal.
This was the first world championship medal for Marks, who won ahead of world record holder Julia Gaffney, who placed fourth at 1:23.18.
“There are a lot of people that support me every single day, so hopefully it means that I am taking their advice and working very hard for them,” Marks said. “If it weren’t for people volunteering their time for me, this wouldn’t be possible. It’s very emotional to be here in the aquatic center. I was supposed to race here five years ago and ended up on life support. People in the UK saved my life. This was a beautiful ending to a very important chapter in my life.”
Silver medalist Newkirk had this to say:
“I’m really happy with my race. I couldn’t be prouder. It’s my first time at worlds, and I’m really happy with how it’s going so far,” said Newkirk, who briefly held the world record earlier this year thanks to a time of 1:19.99 set at the Canadian Trials on April 3. “It was a great race. I’m a very competitive person, so having people near me motivates me even more. It’s awesome to have competitive people to race against.”
Germany’s Verena Schott took down world record holder Song Lingling of China in the S6 100 back with a 1:23.81 as Song was second at 1:24.78. She was joined on the podium by fellow Chinese swimmer Jiang Yuyan (1:25.27).
Mexico’s Vianney Trejo broke the Americas record at 1:32.53 for seventh place.
Men’s 100 Free
Maksym Krypak of the Ukraine had a strong showing in the S10 100 free as he won the gold medal at 51.18 ahead of Italy’s Stefano Raimondi (51.45). Australia’s Rowan Crothers (51.47), who has been competing on the world stage since he was 15, won the bronze medal.
Such is his attitude to push himself and become the best athlete he can be, the 21-year-old Crothers couldn’t help but display a touch of disappointment post-race.
“Honestly I am a bit disappointed with that swim, I haven’t come here to win medals and break records, I’ve come here to do the best that I can and put a strong time on the board,” he said.
“I’m in the best form of my life right now, so to not produce it does kind of suck, but that’s the sport, sometimes all the cards will be in your favour and someone pulls out a royal flush, but you’ve just got to play the next hand.
“That’s going to be my focus for now, resetting and getting ready for the 4x100m relay at the end of the week and then from there reassessing what we need to do to get me to 49s for Tokyo.”
Women’s 100 Free
Canada’s Aurelie Rivard was the only swimmer to break a minute in the S10 100 free final as she broke the championship record with a 59.83. Rivard missed her own world record of 59.17 that she set in 2015 as she finished ahead of the Dutch duo of Chantalle Zijderveld (1:00.71) and Lisa Kruger (1:00.76).
In her fourth appearance at worlds, the 23-year-old Rivard, who opened the competition on Monday with gold in the 50-m free, now has 12 career medals, including four gold, six silver and two bronze.
“I am really happy. I really wanted to win this race because I had never won the world title in the 100 free, so it’s exciting to win a new one,” said Rivard, who trains at Montreal’s High Performance Centre-Quebec with coach Mike Thompson. “There was no way I was letting anyone beat me tonight. At the turn, I looked to see where my closest rival was, I put my head in the water and gave everything I had to make sure I was first to the wall.”
It was Rivard’s best time of the year in the event, not too far off from the world record of 59.17 she set at the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto.
“After 10 years of international competition, lowering personal bests and setting records becomes more and more specific, and it’s really more about details than anything else. I’m going keep focusing on what I can improve. To see all these younger girls, 18-year-olds coming up, they’re faster and faster and it just motivates me to keep working even harder.”
Men’s 50 Fly
China’s Wang Lichao broke the second world record of the night with a 31.52 in the S5 50 fly final, breaking the old record that he set earlier this year at 32.94. Wang finished in front of Yaroslav Semenenko (33.22) of the Ukraine, who broke the European record for the silver medal. Brazil’s Daniel Dias (34.44) won the bronze medal for Brazil’s first medal of the night.
Women’s 50 Fly
Italy’s Arianna Talamona won the S5 50 fly final with a 45.62 as she finished well in front of Brazil’s Joana Da Silva (47.21) and Turkey’s Sevilay Ozturk (47.35). Those three competed in the S5 category. Germany’s Gina Boettcher finished in seventh place but actually broke the championship record in the S4 category.
Men’s 50 Back
Mexico’s Diego Lopez Diaz won the gold medal in the S3 50 back final as he swam a 44.42. He finished in front of the Chinese duo of Zou Liankang (45.33) and Liu Benying (46.49).
New Zealand’s Cameron Leslie won the S4 50 back final as he broke the Oceania record with a 42.13. Leslie’s gold added on to the two that Sophie Pascoe has already won this week. Leslie missed the world record of Russia’s Roman Zhdanov of 41.50 from earlier this year. Arnost Petracek (43.48) won the silver medal ahead of world record holder Zhdanov (43.52).
Women’s 50 Back
Brazil’s Edenia Garcia won the S3 50 back gold medal with a 56.71 as she finished in front of USA’s Leanne Smith (58.42) and Great Britain’s Ellie Challis (58.91), who broke the British record.
15 year old Challis, the youngest member of the Great Britain team in London, said:
“I’m really shocked – I don’t know what just happened. That was my second time under the minute, which was my goal this year. I did it this morning and I did it now.”
Speaking about how she felt before the race Challis said:
“I felt quite cool about it. There’s no point getting worried about it, I just wanted to focus on my race. I went out there to get a time rather than a medal; this tops everything. Going in there being one of the youngest, on my first international competition with Great Britain, there’s no pressure you just race and it felt amazing. I enjoyed the whole thing.”
Maryna Verbova of the Ukraine won the S4 50 back final with a 50.79 as she was well in front of Greece’s Alexandra Stamatopoulou (52.86), who is 33 years old compared to Verbova, who is 21. Italy’s Arjola Trimi (55.59) won the bronze medal with her efforts.
Men’s 200 Free
Russia’s Alexander Makarov won the S2 200 free final as he swam a 4:16.00 to win ahead of Chile’s Alberto Abarza (4:19.51) and Russia’s Vladimir Danilenko (4:20.27).
Men’s 200 IM
Rogier Dorsman of the Netherlands won his first world title in the SM11 200 IM final as he broke the world record with a 2:22.02 to break the 2:22.40 that Yang Bozun set in this very pool at the 2012 London Paralympics. Dorsman won ahead of Japan’s Keiichi Kimura (2:26.58) and Viktor Smyrnov (2:29.87) of the Ukraine.
Women’s 200 IM
The Netherlands continued its momentum into the women’s SM11 200 IM final as Liesette Bruinsma broke another world record with a 2:46.49, lowering her own world record of 2:46.58 she set in 2018. Bruinsma won ahead of the Ukraine’s Maryna Piddubna (2:49.04) and China’s Zhang Xiaotong (2:49.22), who broke the Asian record.
Italy’s Arianna Talamona won the SM5 200 IM final with a 3:19.62 as she broke the championship record, winning by nearly six full seconds over Cheng Jiao (3:25.13) of China. Cheng broke the Asian record for the silver medal. Italy’s Giulia Ghiretti (3:37.93) won the bronze.
Men’s 400 Free
Andrei Nikolaev of Russia won the S8 400 free final with a 4:31.64 as he won by a second over USA’s Robert Griswold (4:32.77), who broke the American record for the silver medal. China’s Zhou Zhihua (4:35.49) won the bronze medal.
“The coverage of world championships is great,” Griswold said. “Since I was a little kid, I’ve dreamed of Paralympics being on TV regularly. To have the Olympic Channel and NBC covering this is amazing. For all the people who care about us and watch us swim at home. It’s just a really great thing, and I hope this coverage will lead into great coverage for the 2020 Paralympic Games.”
Women’s 400 Free
Great Britain’s Alice Tai has won her fair share of medals this week in London as she has given the British crowd something to be excited about once again, winning the S8 400 free with a 4:49.01. This is Tai’s fourth gold medal of the week as she won ahead of Italy’s Xenia Palazzo (4:51.21) and USA’s Jessica Long (4:51.45). Long won the 40th World Championships medal of her career.
China’s Zheng Tingting (5:10.57) broke the Asian record in placing sixth.
Tai said of her performance:
“I was so nervous before that race as Jessica had posted such a good time in the heats. My PB for the event is 4:47 and I’ve not gone close to that since 2014, so I knew I needed to pull it out the bag. My purpose was just to race hard but at one point I got scared as she was quite far ahead. I also know what her splits are like and I know her back end is really strong and I was honestly scared that after I overtook her she’d come straight back at me in the last length. I really did have to dig in, close my eyes and get every ounce of energy out of me. I honestly didn’t expect to win that.”
Tai, who is better known for her sprinting, said of her success at distance events:
“I definitely prefer sprints – 400s are a lot more tiring for me and I struggle with them. My coach has been working a lot more in training on trying to improve my aerobic base for them. We knew there would be a medal opportunity here – I’m glad he saw that opportunity and it’s paid off.”
Mixed 4×100 Free Relay
Great Britain’s team of Thomas Hamer (53.07), Bethany Firth (58.32), Jessica-Jane Applegate (59.76) and Reece Dunn (51.06) absolutely smashed the world record in the mixed 4×100 free relay with a 3:42.21. They lowered the world record by nearly 20 full seconds as Russia (3:45.32) won the silver ahead of Australia (3:51.60).
Applegate spoke of Dunn’s final leg and said:
“I know Reece is an absolute animal and is a chaser. He loves to race. He’s been setting records this week, so we had great confidence in him bringing us home.”
Dunn himself spoke of the third gold medal of the night for Great Britain, and said:
“With 15 metres to go I thought I’d love to do a good swim here and pull through for the team. We all went out with a positive attitude and it paid off.”