Swimming-Meilutyte smashes breaststroke record for strong finish at worlds
Meilutyte obliterated the record of 29.30 seconds that she had jointly held with Benedetta Pilato of Italy after setting that mark in her semi-final on Saturday.
Representative Image
FUKUOKA: Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania set her second world record in as many days in the women's 50 metres breaststroke, powering to the gold medal in a time of 29.16 seconds at the World Aquatics Championships on Sunday.
Meilutyte obliterated the record of 29.30 seconds that she had jointly held with Benedetta Pilato of Italy after setting that mark in her semi-final on Saturday. "I'm happy," Meilutyte said. "I definitely felt it was possible. I'm enjoying the process along the way."
She was 0.78 seconds ahead of silver medallist Lilly King of the United States. Pilato took bronze in 30.04 seconds. Sweden's Sarah Sjoestroem had broken her own world record in the women's 50m freestyle semi-finals in a time of 23.61 seconds a day earlier and the 29-year-old was almost as quick in the final to claim gold in style.
Sjoestroem finished only one hundredth of a second away from her blistering effort for the record to beat Australia's Shayna Jack, who clocked 24.10. Zhang Yufei took bronze in 24.15 to further swell China's medal tally at the championships. Ahmed Hafnaoui ensured a second gold of the meeting for Tunisia after edging past Bobby Finke of the United States in a fiercely contested men's 1,500m freestyle race.
He finished in 14 minutes 31.54 seconds to miss out on Sun Yang's world record of 14:31.02. Finke was a mere 0.05 seconds behind the champion and Australia's Sam Short, who led for the first half of the race, settled for bronze. Hunter Armstrong had got the U.S. off to a golden start on the final day of swimming as he bagged the men's 50m backstroke title to secure his first individual crown.
The 22-year-old touched the wall in 24.05 seconds, 0.19 seconds ahead of compatriot Justin Ress with China's Xu Jiayu taking bronze after finishing 0.45 seconds behind the winner. Canada's world record-holder Summer McIntosh proved too good for the field in the women's 400m individual medley, roaring to gold in a championship record time of 4:27.11.
American Katie Grimes took silver after finishing more than four seconds away, while Australia's Jenna Forrester had to be content with bronze.
