FROM LEFT: Megan Romano, Shannon Vreeland, Natalie Coughlin and Missy Franklin of the US pose with their gold medals at the women’s 4x100m freestyle victory ceremony during the World Swimming Championships at the Sant Jordi arena in Barcelona, yesterday.
BARCELONA, Catalonia: Missy Franklin captured her first gold of what she hopes will be an eight-title haul at the world swimming championships when she led the United States to victory in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, yesterday.
Led off by the 18-year-old, the USA won in a time of 3min 32.31sec.
Australia finished second at 3min 32.43sec -- just 0.12 behind -- while the Netherlands finished back at 3min 35.77sec.
It was Megan Romano, swimming the final freestyle leg, who managed to hold off Australia’s Alicia Coutts to give the USA women their second gold of the night after Katie Ledecky’s win in the 400m freestyle.
Victory comes exactly a decade after the USA women’s relay squad last won world gold in this event -- also in Barcelona at the 2003 championships.
Natalie Coughlin, 30, who swam the second leg yesterday, is the only member of the 2003 squad who tasted relay victory a decade later.
Elsewhere, Jeremy Stravius produced a scintillating final leg as France stormed from behind to see off the United States, Russia and Australia and steal 4x100 relay gold.
Olympic champions in London last year, the French were fourth when Stravius dived into the water but he hauled in American James Feigen, Russia’s Danila Izotov and James Roberts of Australia to touch in three minutes 11.18 seconds.
The United States matched their silver from London in a time of 3:11.42 and Russia pipped Australia to the bronze in 3:11.44.
Fabien Gilot’s contribution on the third leg was also significant as he was the only man to go under 47 seconds, recording a split time of 46.9 compared to Stravius’s 47.59.
Teenager Katie Ledecky of the USA won the women’s 400m freestyle gold at swimming’s world championships yesterday with Spain’s Melanie Costa Schmid second and New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle third.
The 16-year-old Ledecky, who claimed a shock gold in the 800m freestyle at the London Olympics, produced another superb performance over the shorter distance in Barcelona as she clocked 3mins 59.82secs to claim her first world title.
Costa Schmid claimed the silver in 4:02.47, while Boyle took bronze in 4:03.89, but Ledecky touched the wall a full body-length ahead of her rivals.
Olympic champion Sun Yang of China claimed men’s 400m freestyle gold to complete the set of major titles in the event.
Just as he did in the London 2012 final, the 21-year-old Chinese dominated early on in Barcelona to add the 400m world title to the 800m and 1500m freestyle gold medals he won two years ago in Shanghai
Sun clocked 3min 41.59sec, finishing more than three seconds ahead of Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, who swam 3:44.82, while Connor Jaeger of the USA finished in 3:44.85 to claim third.
“I give thanks to my coach and my parents,” said an emotional Sun, who has moved his training base to Hong Kong in the last year.
“I have been training for this for the past 10 years and it has paid off.”
Sun has had a turbulent 12 months since his London triumph after a row with his coach over the giant swimmer’s love affair with an air stewardess.
Sun, the tall distance specialist from Zhejiang, rejected coach Zhu Zhigen’s demand that he stop seeing his new girlfriend and concentrate on his swimming instead.
Despite a public show of reconciliation with Zhu, Sun has been training in Hong Kong under former Chinese head coach Zhang Yadong.
“Over the last year, I have experienced a lot of new things and I still managed to win the gold medal,” said Sun.
“I have overcame many problems and proved myself tonight.
“I am very satisfied with my performance and I hope to have an even better performance in my other events.” REUTERS
