BY FAWAD HUSSAIN
DOHA: When Florent Manaudou broke the men’s 50m freestyle world record on Friday, he said he was not expecting such a feat from himself. But now it seems the Frenchman has developed a habit of shattering records.
The 24-year old stunned almost packed spectators at the Hamad Aquatic Centre in Doha yesterday, when he annihilated five-year old record of 22.61 seconds by Peter Marshal in the men’s 50m backstroke event, clocking 22.22 on the penultimate day of 12th FINA World Swimming Championship (25m).
Manaudou’s performance was special as the United States swimmer Marshal created the record in controversial shiny suit. Also, he defeated Eugene Godsoe with a good margin of 0.83 seconds to claim the gold medal. Stanislav Donetec of Russia took bronze medal.
Meanwhile, Hungary’s golden girl Katinka Hosszu continued with her brilliant show as she tamed her own world record in women’s 200m individual medley, winning the race in two minutes and 01.86 seconds, 0.27 seconds better than her previous feat. This was the fourth gold medal and world record for the Hungarian in the championship so far.
She defeated silver medallist Siobhan-Marie Oconnor of the Great Britain with a huge margin of 4.01 seconds. But Hosszu wanted more pace from herself in the race.
“I wanted to break another two-minute barrier today,” Hosszu told The Peninsula while hoping for more medals on the final day today.
“I have more competitions left and now I am focusing on the final day.”
Hosszu said the excitement of winning and creating records help her going in spite of the hectic schedule.
“It’s tiring to take part in so many events on the same day but the feeling of victory charges me every time.”
With so many records came to her credit this year, ‘The Iron Lady’ said she was ‘satisfied’ with her performance in 2014, which will almost end with the culmination of the ongoing championship.
“I am pretty satisfied with my performance this year and I am happy.”
Meanwhile, Alia Atkinson of Jamaica equaled world record by winning gold medal in the women’s 100m breaststroke with a time of one minute and 02.36 seconds. She now shares the record with Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania, who achieved the feat last year.
“I was shocked to see my name on top of the list because I am not used to it. It was a good shock though,” said delighted Atkinson on her triumph.
In both the team events yesterday, world records tumbled with Russia and the United States winning gold medals.
Russia bettered their own record in men’s 4x50m freestyle, finishing the job in one minute and 22.60 seconds – 0.76 seconds ahead of their previous best time. The United States took silver and Italy secured bronze medal in the competition.
In mixed 4x50m freestyle relay what was the last race of the day, the United States surpassed last year’s world record of Russia (one minute and 29.53 seconds), clocking one minute and 28.57 seconds to grab the gold medal. Russians were the runners-up followed by team Brazil.
Meanwhile, South African star Chad Le Clos won another short course gold medal, winning the men’s 50m butterfly with a time of 21.95 seconds – a new championship record. Le Clos fell short of just 0.15milliseconds of the world record marked by Germany’s Steffen Deibler in 2009.
Nicholas Santos of Brazil and Andrii Govorov of Ukraine took silver and bronze medals respectively.
Apart from the finals yesterday, some outstanding performance was witnessed in the semi-finals as well with three championship records being smashed.
Emily Seebohm of Australia set a new mark in women’s 50m backstroke, Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden smashed championship record in women’s 100m butterfly while Adam Peaty of Great Britain achieved the similar feat in men’s 50m breaststroke.
THE PENINSULA
