KAZAN: Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy won the 1,500m freestyle at the world swimming championships on Sunday night in a race that went off without two-time defending champion Sun Yang of China.

Sun didn’t appear for the introductions and there was no immediate explanation for the Olympic champion’s absence. Lane 3 remained empty instead of being filled by reserve Pal Joensen of the Faroe Islands.

Paltrinieri took the lead from Ryan Cochrane of Canada at 500m and controlled the pace the rest of the way, touching in 14 minutes, 39.67 seconds.

Connor Jaeger of the United States finished second in 14:41.20. Cochrane, who was under world-record pace through 400 meters, was third in 14:51.08.

Katinka Hosszu of Hungary made a run at the world record in the women’s 400 individual medley before falling short on the last freestyle lap. She won in 4:30.39, after being 3.81 under world-record pace after five laps. Maya DiRado of the United States finished second. Emily Overholt of Canada was third.

Japan’s Daiya Seto cruised to a 1.40-second victory for his second consecutive title in the 400m individual medley on the final night of swimming.

Seto led all the way and touched in 4:08.50 — 0.19 faster than he swam two years ago in Barcelona.

David Verraszto of Hungary finished second in 4:09.90. American Chase Kalisz, second in Barcelona, was third in 4:10.05.

Bronte Campbell of Australia won the 50m freestyle to go with her title in the 100m free. She touched in 24.12.

Jennie Johansson earned a surprising win against a talented field in the 50m breaststroke, a non-Olympic event. The Swede won in 30.05.

Camille Lacourt of France won the 50m backstroke, another event not part of the Olympic programme. He finished in 24.23.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2015

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