The FINA World Championships Herald
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MEDAL TABLE 1 CHN 14 10 8 32 2 USA 9 6 5 20 3 RUS 9 4 2 15 The FINA World Championships Herald - 2015 Friday, 7 August № Winning smiles IT’S SELFIE TIME ON THE PODIUM AFTER THE WOMEN’S XM FREE The Katie Ledecky bandwagon keeps make it three straight wins in this But while Ledecky’s medal-winning on rolling as the 18-year-old star event for the Americans. form continues, namesake Katie anchored team USA to gold in the Italy’s Federica Pellegrini produced a McLaughlin was the star swimmer. 4x200m freestyle relay – and took powerful anchor leg to lead Italy to She swam the third leg barely an hour her personal tally to four titles. silver while China took bronze to pick after her 200m butterfl y fi nal and A quartet that blended youth and up their sixth medal of the day and did a great job to claw back experience was good enough to roll extend their overall lead in the World much of Sweden’s 2.5 second l P back a fast start from Sweden to Championships medal table. ead. >>>>>> 56 The FINA World Championships Herald-2015 Friday, August 7, 2015 MARIYA KISELYOVA, triple Olympic Champion: “Kazan deserves an ‘A’ grade for the way it’s hosted the World Championships. Indeed, you could even give it an ‘A+’ to show how well everything has gone. Over the past few years, while preparing for Universiade and these championships, DAY the city has done so much to make itself a truly sporting place – not just in terms of facilities but also in the spirit of the people.” WATER POLO VOLUNTEERS Text and photos by Artem Kuznetsov “It’s a really cool event!” There are 2,500 volunteers working at the FINA World Championships in Kazan. The “Herald” asked some of the main helpers of the competition about their work and their impressions of the event. Georgiy Rudakov, Novosibirsk, timer: I work in the timing, typing up game stats at the water polo. Those stats are then dis- played on the TV screens. Everything about this is great. It’s a brand new experience for me because I’m young and it’s the first time I’ve worked on such a big project. I’m inter- ested in everything, I like everything here. I think this experience will be useful for me because some day I can tell people: ‘When I was just 18 I worked at the World Champi- onships in Kazan! By Andy Potts, photo:Rinat Nazmetdinov Alexander Alekseev, Saratov, BALKAN RIVALS READY snow leopard Itil: I’m Itil, one of the official mascots of the World TO GO FOR GOLD Championships. Is it difficult? Yes and no. It’s The men’s water polo tournament is set for a mouth-watering fi nale as Olympic champions tough to spend six hours in a hot, sweaty costume, even if we have a rest every half Croatia will take on World Cup and World League winners Serbia on Saturday. an hour. But I don’t really get tired. People are always coming over, asking me to pose roatia earned their place with a shoot- pass on 1:42 then with just 27 seconds to play That left coach Dejan Savic savouring the for photos. I must have been in 200 pictures out win over a resilient Greek team Christodoulos Kolomvos levelled the scores. final. “It’s going to be great,” he said. “These every day! I’m having a great time. This is a Cthat battled back to tie in regulation, That meant a shoot-out and a chance for are the two best teams in the championship. really cool event. while Serbia took an early stranglehold on its Greece to repeat its narrow win over Austral- Today we started strongly and were very good game with Italy, opening up a 4-0 lead before ia in the last eight. But there was no repeat of in the first two periods. After that it was easy winning 10-6. that success: Croatia missed nothing and Io- to hold on until the end.” Italy and Greece meet in the bronze-med- annis Fountoulis, with 14 goals in Kazan, failed His captain, Zivko Gocic, was also happy but Yana Korobeiynikova, al game with the additional prize of Olympic on the decisive attempt for Greece. warned that Croatia would be a big test. “We Kirov, qualification also up for grabs. The two final- Croatia goalie Josip Pavic said: “We’ve done were very, very good,” he said. “But believe me, snow leopard Alsu: ists are already on their way to Rio. what we wanted this summer – win a med- it will be totally different against Croatia. We The first semi turned into an epic as Cro- al and qualify for the Olympics. We’ve done are two nations from the same school. But we atia and Greece tied 10-10 in regulation. At that and we’re happy. Now we’ll start think- need to win just one more game to take the first it seemed that the Croats would pro- ing about the final but it was tough last night. gold medal.” gress without any great alarm: they opened We couldn’t finish off Greece because they’re Two further classification stages were com- up an early 2-0 lead and stretched that lead a great team. It went all the way to penalties pleted. Canada beat Brazil to ninth place and I found out about the Championships while to 4-1 and 5-2 thanks to Paulo Obradovic and but we had prepared for that.” Kazakhstan took 11th ahead of South Africa. I was studying at university. It’s my second Petar Muslim. Serbia had a relatively smooth passage Today sees the finals of the women’s com- time here – I was at the Universiade and I But the Greeks hit back before half time to through the second semi and has erased the dis- petition with red-hot favourites the USA tak- love Kazan. I really enjoy being a mascot and reduce the arrears to a single goal before the appointments of a seventh-placed finish in 2013. ing on the Netherlands in the gold-medal game last time I was a snow leopard again. It’s teams traded scores early in the second half. A powerful first quarter saw the Serbs open at 10pm. nice. I spend a lot of time playing with the Croatia seemed to have weathered the storm up a 4-0 lead, and that proved to be unassail- Victory for the Americans would see the children and I love it when they smile at me when they went 10-8 ahead deep in the third able. The Italians battled to keep the score re- team make history, becoming the first ever to and hug me. The most spectacular event, for thanks to Sandro Sukno’s fast shot from out- spectable and attempted to make a game of hold the Olympic, World Championship, World me, was the rehearsal of the opening cere- side, but Greece wasn’t finished. That two-goal it in the second half, closing a 2-8 half-time Cup and World League titles simultaneously. mony. It didn’t feel like a rehearsal for me, it lead evaporated in the final period: Emmanouil deficit to 4-9 but never really getting close to The bronze-medal game pits Australia lifted my spirit. I felt that I was where I tru- Mylonakis made it 9-10 off a beautiful cross ruffling Serbia’s feathers. against Italy at 8:30pm. ly wanted to be. The FINA World Championships Herald - 2015 Friday, August 7, 2015 SWIMMING PREVIEW By Matthew Luxmoore and Aly Keita photo Ramil Gilvanov 22 seconds from glory – By Aly Keita Manaudou meets Morozov It’s shoot-out time: a single length of the pool to determine the men’s 50m freestyle gold. Russian hopes are pinned on Vladimir Morozov while France’s defending champion Florent Manaudou is the man to beat. head of today’s heats we spoke start, ready to go. It’s uncomfortable to to a swimmer who knows all stand there and wait, it’s hard on the Aabout winning sprint medals – hamstrings. So for Morozov’s false start, Men. 200m IM. France’s Frédérick Bousquet, a double he went early but the starter took a long European champion in the 50m free time to send them away. As for the pres- 1:55.81 USA Ryan Lochte who is working as a commentator for sure, I don’t think that’s an issue. Mo- French TV here – to run the rule over rozov has spent a long time in the USA, Brazil Thiago 1:56.65 Pereira the pretenders to the sprinting crown. he’s “Americanized” his performance and We’re all looking forward to today’s he’s used to dealing with stress and pres- Wang Shun 1:56.81 China head-to-head between Morozov and sure. But of course he wants to show Manaudou. Can you analyse their his best form in his own country. Could strengths and weaknesses? that push him into a mistake? Let’s see … Men. 100m free. First we can’t overlook Cesar Cielo’s Which other swimmers have im- withdrawal. It’s a huge surprise because pressed you in Kazan ? 47.84 China Ning Zetao we didn’t expect him to give up before the We are seeing the star swimmers us- race even though we knew he had prob- ing this event as a springboard towards Australia Cameron 47.95 McEvoy lems with his shoulders.