The Hansson family enjoyed an outstanding night on Day 2 at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Abu Dhabi. Sisters Sophie and Louise were part of Sweden’s golden 4x50m medley relay where they equalled the world record. Sophie then claimed a bronze in the 50m Breaststroke. Louise followed this up with a win in the 100m Backstroke.
The evening session saw thrilling finals, with winning gaps of 0.02sec in the women’s 100m Backstroke, 0.03sec in the men’s 200m Freestyle, 0.06sec in the Mixed Free Relay and 0.10sec in the men’s 100m Breaststroke.
Sweden kicked out the party in style on Day 2 as they stormed to a world record in the women’s 4x50m Medley Relay for the country’s first-ever relay world title since 2002. The Hansson sisters Louise and Sophie were simply brilliant as Sarah Sjostrom’s butterfly leg confirmed that the world record set by the USA at the previous edition was no longer in safe and Michelle Coleman brought it strongly home to tie the all-time global mark of 1:42.38.
“We were thinking of a medal, gold was also in the cards but never thought we could set a world record, this is fantastic,” said Sophie Hansson, who added a bronze in the 50m Breaststroke an hour later.
Then, towards the end of the night’s action, came the third act of the family’s success story. Louise triumphed in the 100m Backstroke, though, she had been excelling in freestyle and butterfly before. It was a thriller as she managed to win by 0.02sec ahead of Canada’s long-course world champion and Olympic runner-up, Kylie Masse.
“Oh Gosh, I’m overwhelmed!” Louise said in astonishment. “Beforehand, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to swim the 100m back. Then I saw some progress in the ISL, so I kept it but never thought I could win it. Oh, what an evening, world record in the relay, then another gold, in backstroke… I can’t believe it!”
As for the other stories of the day, Shaine Casas emerged from the US collegiate waters to beat backstroke heavyweight Kliment Kolesnikov of the Russian Swimming Federation in the 100m. Relatively unknown before, Casas showed his class in the heats and semis, so his win wasn’t unexpected. Still, keeping the world record holder at bay by 0.23sec is a brilliant feat from the American who was born on Christmas Day so his upcoming 22nd birthday is just got a golden present.
“Once the race started, I kind of blanked out, spinning my arms as fast as I could and by the time I realised what was going on, we were at the end of the third leg” Casas recalled after the race. “I did the dolphin-kicks, after that my legs almost stopped working and I was just going for the wall to hit it first before these guys ran me down. It’s a huge jump after the college scene. These guys are on another level, but it takes practice, some confidence and you figure it out very quickly what to do.”
China’s Zhang Yufei joined an elite, small circle of greats by adding the 200m Butterfly short course world title to the Olympic gold she earned earlier this season. There had been only two outstanding females before who achieved that feat over this distance: Aussie legend Susie O’Neal and Spain’s queen Mireia Belmonte. Quite some company to keep.
Zhang also had a shot at the world record. She tested herself in the morning by going out fast, splitting a time well below the world mark for the first 50m before slowing down. In the final, she employed the same tactics, blasting through the first 50m again. She tried to maintain her speed, but in the end, she got far from Belmonte’s mighty 1:59.61 mark from 2014, still the only sub-2 minute swim ever recorded.
“I’m happy with the gold but slightly disappointed as I wanted to break the world record,” Zhang said. “Anyway, it was a very successful season for me with the Olympic title, but I consider this year as just the beginning of something great, I want much-much more next season.”
Credits go to the other two on the podium: USA’s Charlotte Hook grabbed silver from lane 1, while Bosnia’s Lana Pudar managed to snatch her nation’s first-ever medal at any major championships in history.
“This is a very great feeling, I’m really proud,” Pudar said. “I mean, I trained hard so we knew I would have a chance but it’s still hard to believe when it’s actually happening.”
Ilya Shymanovich had a strange meet at the short-course Europeans early November as the Belarussian favourite won the 50m and the 200m Breaststrokes, but missed the 100m title by 0.14sec to Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi in Kazan (RUS).
Abu Dhabi proved it was payback time, especially after Shymanovich had brought the world record down during the ISL finals in this event. It was a brilliant duel again and Shymanovich got it this time, with a new Championship Record, 0.10sec ahead of his Italian rival.
“Yeah, it’s sweet to win this” he smiled after the race. “Though I’m a bit tired as the heats and the semis were hard and it was awesome to look at the board and see I was first. I’m rested for this competition, but I won’t tell you I’m eying a treble here, I don’t want to think so much forward.”
Italy had another golden hope in the women’s breaststroke, too, with long-course world record holder Benedetta Pilato in the field. She swam on lane 2 so she could barely see Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko gears go up in the homecoming leg on lane 7, with Gorbenko edging out the Italian by 0.14sec at the wall. Again, it was history in the making as this was the first-ever world title for Israel, in either a long- or short course global championship.
Just five years after the brilliant Park Taehwan won the men’s 200m Freestyle in Windsor, it was Korea’s time again here in the Etihad Arena. Eighteen-year-old Hwang Sunwoo won the most thrilling male finals so far here in Abu Dhabi, out-touching Russian Swimming Federation’s Day 1 relay hero Aleksandr Shchegolev by 0.03sec. Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys wasn’t far away, either, just 0.13 back from the global titleist.
“I knew it was going to be a really tight race, but I didn’t want to think of that, just do my job in the pool,” Hwang said. “I wouldn’t say I saw any of my rivals during the race or felt I was winning, just went for it, touched the wall and I was happy to see that I won.”
The session-ending Mixed Free Relay were up to the previous finals’ excitement level as it became the fourth event today where the winning gap was 0.10sec or less. The Netherlands led going into the last leg, but Canada’s Margaret MacNeil produced an outstanding anchor leg to gain 0.85sec on Kira Toussaint and pull the Canadians to victory by 0.06sec. The battle for the bronze was decided by 0.07sec, with the Russian Swimming Federation edging the American quartet.
This latter event moved two greats closer to the top on the all-time short course world championships medal ranks: Dutchwoman Ranomi Kromowidjojo bagged two (in the two relays) to move into third with 24 podiums. Kromowidjojo now only trails Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu (27) and the USA’s Ryan Lochte (38) in the career medal tally. Vladimir Morozov (RSF) is next on the list, with his bronze in the relay lifting his total to 22 – and there are four more days to go!
Source: FINA