FUKUOKA, Japan (Reuters) – Sarah Sjoestroem cruised to her fifth consecutive World Aquatics Championships title in the women’s 50 metres butterfly event on Saturday, as the evergreen Swede finished strongly to defeat China’s Zhang Yufei.
The 29-year-old Sjoestroem touched the wall in 24.77 seconds to deny Zhang, who was 0.28 seconds behind, while Gretchen Walsh of the United States took bronze.
Australia’s Cameron McEvoy then won the men’s 50m freestyle gold in a superb time of 21.06 seconds, beating silver medallist Jack Alexy of the U.S. by 0.51 seconds. Briton Benjamin Proud settled for bronze.
The absence of 2022 men’s 100m butterfly champion Kristof Milak and Olympic gold medallist Caeleb Dressel, who also has the world record, will add a dash of uncertainty to the final later in the evening.
American Dara Rose dominated the semi-finals to clock the best time ahead of Frenchman Maxime Grousset and Canadian Josh Liendo but only 0.22 seconds separates the trio.
China can continue their good showing at the meet when Peng Xuwei takes to the pool at the Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall for the women’s 200m backstroke event, with the 20-year-old making the final as the fastest swimmer after the preliminary races.
But she can expect a tough test from American Regan Smith, who was second in the semis, and Australia’s Olympic and world champion Kaylee McKeown who also holds the world record of 2:03.14 in the event having set that time in March.
Victory for McKeown will ensure a sweep of backstroke titles at the meet, after the 22-year-old won the 50m and 100m events.
American Katie Ledecky went quickest in the women’s 800m freestyle heats, ahead of China’s Li Bingjie and New Zealand’s Erika Hairweather, and will aim to retain her title and bag a 21st worlds gold having also won the 1,500m race this week.
The Australian mixed 4x100m freestyle relay team have a shot at lowering their world record of 3:19.38 in the last race after cruising through the heats and going nearly two seconds faster than the United States.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
