Eventi: Gwangju 2019 Fina World Championship

THIRD CONSECUTIVE 3M TITLE FOR SHI TINGMAO (CHN

Suffering from an injury on her waist, Shi Tingmao proved her reputation as the Queen on the women's 3m springboard as the two-time Olympic champion romped to take the victory and brought a one-two finish with Wang Han at the 18th FINA World Championships here on Friday.
It was Shi's third consecutive world title in the event, thus helping China remaining unbeaten in the 3m since 2001. Guo JIngjing swept five gold in a row and the last non-Chinese champion was Yuliya Pakhalina from Russia at the 1998 Perth Worlds.
China so far booked all 11 gold medals on offer in Gwangju.
Very consistent throughout the final, Shi was always smooth on the board and left no chance to the other divers, winning in 391.00 points. The 27-year-old topped each of her dives, except her fourth, a 107B (Forward 3 1/2 somersault pick) – she was second (77.50) behind Maddison Keeney of Australia for the same combination (79.05).
Wang Han received her third silver medal of the event following her second places in 2013 and 2017 Worlds, while Keeney placed third in 367.05.
Jennifer Abel of Canada, bronze medalist in Budapest two years ago, finished fourth (333.35).

TITMUS UPSETS LEDECKY

Ariarne Titmus (AUS) stunned Katie Ledecky (USA) to hand the American her first-ever defeat over 400m free at major international events. Sun Yang (CHN) claimed his 4th straight title in the same event among the men. The men’s 4x100m relay crown remained in the possession of the US team while the women’s one was passed back to Australia. The first World Record also fell right on the opening day of the swimming competition: Adam Peaty (GRB) became the first man swimming the 100m breast under 57 seconds.

Ariarne Titmus did what no other woman could in the past: beat Katie Ledecky in a 400m free race. It was a tremendous duel between the two greats, Titmus went out fast and kept leading in the first half of the event but Ledecky seemed to take the upper hand afterwards and turned first to the last lap holding a gap of 0.62sec. Then came something special: Titmus could find an extra gear to stun the American, creating a scene never seen before, that Ledecky is passed in the final leg. It happened, Titmus produced a 29.51 last 50 while Ledecky clocked 31.34 to fall behind by 1.21sec at the end. 

Beforehand, the top 10 fastest ever times belonged to Ledecky, Titmus’ latest effort (3:58.76) now sits on the 8th place, kind of showing that the queen was a bit off her best this evening. The race for the bronze was no less exciting as Leah Smith of the US chased Hungarian prodigy Ajna Kesely from the start and managed to out-touch her by 0.02sec at the wall. 

Before that, the session kicked off with another gold for Sun Yang who won the 400m free for the fourth time in a row. The podium was the same as two years ago in Budapest, the Chinese managed to beat Mack Horton and Gabriele Detti once more. While the Aussie and the Italian came somewhat faster than in 2017 – and a similar gap separated them: 0.06 here, 0.08 back then –, and Sun was a bit slower (3:41.28 in 2017, 3:42.44 now), still, he bested his rivals with ease. 

The men’s 4x100m free relay was a true speed festival, it was amazing to see that the field got a lot faster in two years. While in 2017 seven swimmers clocked 47sec splits, not 19 (!) were in that range. The US quartet won with a new Championship Record (3:09.06), a brilliant feat as they brought down the shiny CR from Rome 2009 and was just 0.82 shy of their 2008 WR. Zach Apple threw in a 46.86 split in the second leg, a big boost for the team which gained 0.91sec on the runners-up Russians and the Aussies came third.

In the women’s relay Australia avenged their defeat in Budapest where the US reached the wall first. It took a thriller to get this outcome: at the halfway mark the US led but Canada took over at 300m while the Aussies turned second pushing the US back to third. Still, it came down to a showdown between Cate Campbell (AUS) and Simone Manuel (USA). Both produced an amazing homecoming leg, Campbell – missing from the show in 2017 – stormed to a truly incredible 51.45 split, Manuel also got inside 52sec but at the end it was a clear win for the women from Down Under. Canada clinched the bronze comfortably ahead of the Netherlands. 

Though the title battles were in the spotlight, a couple of outstanding swims channelled a great deal of attention towards the semis as well. Above all, Adam Peaty’s historical 100m breast which saw the first male ever covering this distance inside 57sec. The British Lion roared again, beat his world record from last summer by 0.22 (56.88 is the new mark), a jaw-dropping performance right on the first day.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu also showed something special in the 200m IM where she is set to win a 4th straight title. She clocked 2:07.02 in the morning, the fastest heat swim ever and 2:07.17 in the evening, the 7th and 8th fastest time respectively in the all-time ranks. She admittedly eyes her 2015 WR (2:06.12) tomorrow but she might barely get a push from the others as she looked way better than the others. 

On the contrary, women of the meet in 2017, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was already pushed by Canada’s Margaret Macneil who finished just 0.23sec behind her in the SF – Sjostrom was just 0.23sec better this evening. In the men’s 50m fly five swimmers already got under 23sec, as many as in the final in Budapest, and USA’s Caeleb Dressel was way faster than the winning time in 2017.  

FLAWLESS 10M FINAL GIVES 12TH GOLD FOR CHINA

A record-high dive worth 114.80! 17 perfect marks! In a showdown between Chinese divers Yang Jian and Yang Hao on the men's 10m platform final, it was Yang Jian who finally shined as the newly-crowned champion at the 18th FINA World here on Saturday.
China bagged 12 gold, nine silver and one bronze to top the medal table after the diving competition finished, while Australia snatched the remaining gold in mixed 3m springboard.
In the 10m platform, Qiu Bo claimed the world crown on three occasions in 2011, 2013 and 2015, before Tom Daley (GBR) got the gold in 2017.
Daley started high 93.50 points for his 307C in the first round. However, he made errors in the next four dives and had to concede to a seventh final place.
Yang Jian, silver medalist in Budapest, combined consistence and difficulty in all his six divers, winning in 598.65 for his first world title. He dominated the field from the second dive on and never looked back by soaring to 104.40 for his fifth dive, a 207B (Back 3 1/2 somersault pike), including three 10s. He ended up with his trademark combination, a 109B (Forward 4 1/2 somersault pick), worth a massive 114.80 points! The 25-year-old kissed the pool after winning the title.
Yang Hao, 21, synchro platform champion in Budapest, showed six flawless attempts by earning 13 perfect marks despite his lower difficulty compared to Yang Jian. He snatched the silver medal after he withdraw from the mixed 3m springboard with Chang Yani in the afternoon.
Aleksandr Bondar of Russia finished third with 541.05 and 13-year-old Oleksii Sereda of Ukraine was fourth in 490.50.
Mixed 3m springboard synchro
Australians Maddison Keeney/Mattew Carter won the only non-Chinese gold medal at these Championships, dominating the mixed 3m springboard synchro final.
Chinese Yang Hao/Chang Yani withdrew from the event since Yang needed to compete in the men's 10m platform final.

Fina World Championship Gwangju 2019

Maddison Keeney/Matthew Carter, who competed for the first time together, had a flying start in their first dive, but downed to eighth after their second dive, a 301B (Reverse dive pike). Then the new pair came back to fourth after the third round and led the field for the last two dives, winning with a total of 304.86 points.
Francois Imbeau-Dulac/Jennifer Abel of Canada had to content with silver, 0.78 points behind the Aussies. Lou Massenberg/Tina Punzel of Germany finished third in 301/62.
Tom Daley/Grace Reid (GBR), bronze medallists in Budapest, placed fourth in 298.47.
Mixed synchro events were introduced in the world championships programme in 2015. Chinese diver Wang Han snatched two gold medals in a row with different partners. Wang won in Kazan with Yang Hao, and with Li Zheng in Budapest 2017.
fonti:  Fina, varie
Marcello Spadola