DAEGU (South Korea), Aug 28: Olympic champion Yana Klochkova proved untouchable again, completing a 200 and 400 metres individual medley swimming double at the world university games on Thursday.

Klochkova won gold in the 400 in four minutes, 45.01 seconds.

The 21-year-old Ukrainian, who also won both events at the world championships in Barcelona last month, swam well within herself in Taegu, slowing over the last two laps to finish more than 11 seconds outside her own world record of 4:33.59.

For good measure, Klochkova, who won the 200 medley on Tuesday, returned to the pool to win the 200 freestyle in a games record of 1:59.03 to match her gold medal haul in Beijing.

Her hat-trick helped Ukraine win a day-high seven gold medals to improve to 11, fourth in the medals standings.

China preserved their overall lead with 25 golds after the seventh full day of competition. Russia are second with 21 and the hosts South Korea third on 19.

Audriy Serdinov gave Ukraine another swimming gold in the men’s 100 butterfly with a games record of 51.99, while Russia’s Yuri Prilukov won the 400 metres freestyle in 3:52.27.

World silver medallist Ilona Hlavackova also did the double, adding the 100 backstroke gold to her 50 metres title, clocking 1:01.74. China’s Ouyang Kunpeng took the men’s 100 backstroke title in 54.99.

In the diving, Chinese Olympic silver medallist Li Na won gold in the women’s platform with a total of 554.01 points, comfortably ahead of compatriot Zhang Jun (511.50).

China also won the women’s gymnastic team competition and judo, with Xue Fuyan taking the women’s open class title, as they won four gold medals on Thursday.

A sense of normality returned to Taegu on Thursday after squabbling between North and South Korea over anti-North protests since the games opened on August 21.

North Korean officials also claimed their cheerleaders had been “traumatised” after their bedrooms were allegedly broken into earlier this week.

However, the all-girl supporter squads were out in force again after downing pom-poms in protest the previous day as North Korea crushed Taiwan 4-0 to set a final against Japan in the women’s soccer.

Captain Li Un-sim, the tournament’s outstanding player, became the top overall scorer with two early goals and she also set up a superb third for Mun Chol-mi in the 37th minute. Li Un-suk made it 4-0 six minutes into the second half.

North Korea, who had demolished Germany 6-0, France 9-0 and Mexico 5-0 in the first three matches, completely dominated their semifinal and will be red-hot favourites to beat Japan on Saturday.

Substitute Ayako Kitamoto scored twice as Japan beat China 4-2 to advance in the morning semi-final.

Japan also made it to the men’s final with a 3-0 victory over Morocco and will play Italy, who won by the same score against the Czech Republic, in the gold medal match.

In athletics, South African Johan Pretorius won gold in the men’s 1,500 metres in 3:42.81, well outside the games standard of 3:38.43 set by former world record holder Said Aouita of Morocco in 1981.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Nataliya Sydorenko won a close tussle with Finland’s Johanna Risku to claim the women’s 1,500 title in 4:11.69.

There were further gold medals for Ukraine with Natalya Fokina taking the discus with a throw of 63.11 metres and Valeriy Vasylvev victorious in the men’s long jump after a leap of 8.07.

Olexandr Korchmid made it four track and field gold medals for suddenly-hot Ukraine, winning the men’s pole vault with a best attempt of 5.75 metres.

Medals standings at the end of the seventh full day of competition at the world university games on Thursday:

Gold Silver Bronze Total

China 25 16 9 50

Russia 21 14 24 59

South Korea 19 8 9 36

Ukraine 11 10 9 30

Japan 6 7 16 29

France 6 7 3 16

Britain 5 2 3 10

United States 3 9 11 23

Italy 2 2 4 8

Germany 2 1 4 7

Poland 2 1 2 5

South Africa 2 1 1 4

Czech Republic 2 0 2 4

Uzbekistan 2 0 0 2

Spain 1 4 6 11

Australia 1 4 3 8

North Korea 1 3 0 4

Brazil 1 2 6 9

Taiwan 1 2 5 8

Hungary 1 1 4 6

Moldova 1 0 0 1

Belarus 0 2 4 6

Iran 0 2 2 4

Romania 0 2 2 4

Finland 0 2 0 2

Kazakhstan 0 2 0 2

Turkey 0 2 0 2

Canada 0 1 1 2

Cuba 0 1 1 2

Ireland 0 1 1 2

Mexico 0 1 1 2

Switzerland 0 1 1 2

Morocco 0 1 0 1

Croatia 0 0 2 2

Thailand 0 0 2 2

Netherlands 0 0 2 2

Armenia 0 0 1 1

Austria 0 0 1 1

Cyprus 0 0 1 1

Mongolia 0 0 1 1

Slovakia 0 0 1 1

Israel 0 0 1 1

Greece 0 0 1 1

Bahamas 0 0 1 1

Serbia & Montenegro 0 0 1 1

Malaysia 0 0 1 1

Bosnia & Herzegovina 0 0 1 1

Jamaica 0 0 1 1

Estonia 0 0 1 1

—Reuters