China claims 2nd diving gold, US swimmers secure 2 golds at World Universiade
Agency:
China obtained its second gold from diving, while team USA led the medal table with five golds after collecting two more from the swimming pool on Friday at the FISU World University Games.
Chinese divers Ouyang Yu and Wang Weiying won the women’s synchronized 3m springboard with 294.90 points, 28.92 points ahead of American pair Lanie Lynn Gutch and Eliana Claire Joyce.
German duo Lena Hentschel and Jette Muller took the bronze, trailing the winners by 31.80 points. It’s the second diving gold for China as He Yanwei and Lu Wei earned team China its first gold medal here in women’s synchronized 10m platform on Thursday.
Moritz Wesemann, who was placed just seventh in preliminary, won the host’s second diving gold from the men’s 3m springboard with 454.20 points, closely followed by China’s Hu Yukang with a slight deficit of 5.75 points. US diver Luke Alexander Sitz came third, 24.45 points adrift of the winner.
“It’s so much publicity for sports, especially for smaller sports,” said Wesemann. “I was actually not expecting this result in comparison to yesterday, because yesterday I was not able to show the performance. But when I went into the competition, I was expecting to fight for a medal, but I was not expecting to win the gold.”
Germany’s first Games gold came from the mixed 3m springboard won by Lena Hentschel and Luis Avila Sanchez on Thursday.
Hu, who was ranked first in preliminary, admitted his nervousness cost him the first place.
“I felt very pressured this time because I wanted to win the gold medal. In the last two rounds I felt very nervous,” said Hu.
A total of five gold medals were decided in swimming pool on Friday as two of them went to team USA.
American swimmers finished one-two in the women’s 400m individual medley, which was won by Leah Geneva Hayes in four minutes and 36.04 seconds. Her compatriot Teagan Mcguire O’Dell was 3.92 seconds behind and Japan’s Ayami Suzuki was third lagging behind by 4.58 seconds.
Team USA produced another top two finish in the women’s 200m backstroke with Leah Elizabeth Shackley coming first in two minutes 5.99 seconds and Helen Kennedy Noble second timing 1.83 seconds more. The bronze medal went to South Korea’s Lee En-ji, 2.30 seconds adrift of the leader.
Simone Stefani, who won the 50m and 100m backstrokes at the Chengdu Universiade two years ago, earned Italy’s first gold at the Games from the men’s 50m butterfly in 23.28 seconds, just 0.05 seconds faster than Uzbek swimmer Eldorbek Usmonov. Stefani’s compatriot Lorenzo Gargani was in third place, falling 0.14 seconds behind.
The women’s 50m butterfly title went to Daryna Nabojcenko of the Czech Republic in 26.09 seconds, followed by Josephine Crimmins’ 26.27 seconds from Australia and Viola Scotto Di Carlo’s 26.30s from Italy.
“It is a special day because it is my first big meet. I feel amazing. It was my first gold,” said Nabojcenko.
“It was funny because I looked up, and I couldn’t see if I was first or not and then when I saw I was so happy.”
Kyrgyzstan nailed its first gold from the men’s 100m breaststroke by Denis Petrashov in 59.32 seconds. Poland’s Dawid Lukasz Wiekiera finished 0.34 seconds behind in second place and Benjamin Patrick Delmar from team USA was third, trailing the winning time by 0.48 seconds.
Individual neutral fencer Dmitrii Shvelidze beat Hungary’s Soma Somody 15-11 to win the men’s epee.
Italy’s Aurora Grandis rallied to overtake South Korean Mo Byeo-li also in 15-11 in the women’s foil, delivering her country the second gold medal here.
Azerbaijan won the rhythmic gymnastics group all-around with 50.500 points, followed by Ukraine on 44.450 and Japan on 41.550.
“It’s the first medal for Azerbaijan in rhythmic gymnastics history at the University Games. We’re proud of our team and super proud of how well we competed today,” said Kamilla Aliyeva.
“We tried to perform clean today and to keep the first position. We did that. Actually, we came here with the goal of winning the gold medal. We achieved what we wanted.”
South Korea and Chinese Taipei topped the podium in the men’s and women’s team poomsae of taekwondo, respectively.
After Day 2 competitions, team USA ranks first in the medal standings with a total of 16 medals composed of five golds, three silvers and eight bronzes. South Korea remains second on 3-4-2, while China is third with eight medals on 2-4-2.