KAZAN: China’s Sun Yang defended his men’s 400 metres freestyle title at the world championships on Sunday, the first of a possible four-gold sweep for the 23-year-old.

Sun, the five-times world champion, clocked three minutes 42.58 seconds to take gold as the Chinese powerhouse overtook Britain’s James Guy in the closing stages.

Guy, fifth at this event in Barcelona two years ago, was ahead until the 300m mark, before a surging turn opened up a lead which he never relinquished, winning by 1.17 seconds.

Sun will compete in three more individual events this week, the 200m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle.

Katie Ledecky, the brilliant 18-year-old who graduated from high school in June, had a far easier final to negotiate as the American coasted to gold in the women’s 400m freestyle.

Like Sun, Ledecky is also competing in four individual races and she put down a marker for the week by setting a championship record time of 3:59.13, several seconds clear of her rivals. Sharon van Rou­wen­daal, of the Netherlands, took silver.

Asked if she felt a lack of competition in her races, the defending champion said: “I think it’s a very competitive event and I could feel the other girls racing really hard so that gets me going. It was a fast race.

“When I touched I kind of felt that I had it (a world record), so it took me a second to realise that. But at the same time I can’t complain about another world championship medal.”

France outdueled Russia to win the men’s 4x100 free relay in 3:10.74. Mehdy Metella, Florent Manaudou, Fabien Gilot and Jeremy Stravius took the lead on the third lap and hung on by 0.45 for gold.

Cheered by the near sell-out home crowd, Russia’s team of Andrey Grechin, Nikita Lobintsev, Vladimir Morozov and Alexander Sukhorukov touched second in 3:11.19. Luca Dotto, Marco Orsi, Michele Santucci and Filippo Magnini of Italy earned bronze in 3:12.53.

The United States, winners of the relay at 11 of the 15 previous world meets, surprisingly failed to make the final after tying Germany for 11th in the preliminaries.

Australia won the women’s 4x100 free relay in a championship-record time of 3:31.48. Emily Seebohm, Emma McKeon and sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell took the lead for good at the 200m mark.

Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Maud van deer Meer, Marrit Steenbergen and Femke Heemskerk of the Netherlands finished second in 3:33.67. The U.S. team of Missy Franklin, Margo Geer, Lia Neal and Simone Manuel was third at 3:34.61.

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom set the first world record of the eight-day meeting in the women’s 100 metres butterfly.

Competing in the second semi, she won in 55.74 seconds to lower the old mark of 55.98 set by American Dana Vollmer at the 2012 London Olympics. The final is Monday night at Kazan Arena.

“I’ve been aiming for this record for a long time so it’s great to finally have it,” said Sjoestrom, who is entered in four other sprint events.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2015

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