Reuters
Kazan, August 5: Britain’s James Guy held off a host of Olympic champions to win his first world title, the men’s 200m freestyle, at the World Championships here Tuesday.
After claiming silver in the 400m freestyle behind China’s Sun Yang, the Brit came from third at the final turn to touch the wall in one minute 45.14 seconds. He beat Sun and Paul Biedermann of Germany to silver and bronze respectively. Ryan Lochte, of United States, was fourth.
“It was quite a nice feeling, as I never thought I’d race Ryan, one of my heroes, and racing head to head against him, touching the wall and becoming World Champion is amazing,” said Guy.
“I tried to focus on myself (in the final 50m) and I knew the boys would go out hard. I also knew I had a good back end because of the 400m, so I tried to play to my strengths.”
As expected, Katie Ledecky, of the United States, won her second world title in three days, coasting to victory in the women’s 1,500m freestyle and lowering her world record in the process.
The 18-year-old high school graduate raced away from the field in the opening salvos, recording 15:25.48 seconds to lower the mark she set Monday by 2.23 seconds.
Thirty minutes later, Ledecky was back on the starting blocks for her women’s 200m freestyle semifinal, summoning all her strength to qualify sixth-fastest. “I was prepared for it and it did hurt a lot, but I got the job done and it feels really good,” said Ledecky.
The American, chasing four individual world titles, will face a tough final after Italy’s Federica Pellegrini and Missy Franklin, of the United States, took the first two final berths.
In the final event of a pulsating session, favourite Yuliya Efimova delighted the home crowd by taking gold in the women’s 100m breaststroke.
The Russian, competing in her first major competition since her doping ban ended in February, posted 1:05.66 seconds, with Lithuanian rival Ruta Meilutyte claiming silver.