SHANGHAI, China, April 5. THE first night of the World Short Course Championships, held in Shanghai, featured several familiar names landing on the medal podium. Leading the way was Australia\u2019s Jessicah Schipper, who continued the hot run of the Aussie women. Since the Athens Olympics, the women from Oz have been nothing short of phenomenal.<\/p>\n
The silver medalist at last summer\u2019s World Champs in Montreal, Schipper was not to be denied in the short-course version of the 200 butterfly. Splitting 59.45 at the midway point, Schipper finished in a championship-record effort of 2:05.11. The time bettered the 2002 championship standard of countrywoman Petria Thomas (2:05.76). Italy\u2019s Francesca Segat (2:05.91) and China\u2019s Yang Yu (2:07.05) placed second and third while the United States\u2019 Mary DeScenza (2:07.57) and Elaine Breeden (2:08.70) were fourth and fifth.<\/p>\n
Schipper also helped the Aussies to gold in the 800 freestyle relay, as she was joined by Bronte Barratt, Shayne Reese and Lisbeth Lenton for a performance of 7:46.96. Lenton was phenomenal on the anchor leg, where she split 1:53.78 to give Australia a victory at the wall. China touched just behind in 7:47.07. As for the United States, the squad of Kate Ziegler, Rachel Komisarz, Amanda Weir and Kaitlin Sandeno claimed third in 7:49.16.<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s 200 freestyle, South Africa\u2019s Ryk Neethling notched a wire-to-wire victory as he took the lead at the 50-meter mark (23.98) and held off the Italian duo of Filippo Magnini and Massi Rosolino with a swim of 1:43.51. Magnini chased Neethling to the wall, but fell just short with a time of 1:43.78. Rosolino checked in at 1:44.67 while the American pair of Ryan Lochte (1:45.20) and Jayme Cramer (1:45.35) placed fifth and sixth, respectively.<\/p>\n
Magnini did manage to earn gold as a member of Italy\u2019s 400 freestyle relay that posted a time of 3:10.74. Magnini anchored in 46.69 and was joined by Alessandro Calvi, Klaus Lanzarini and Christian Galenda. Sweden picked up second place in 3:11.63 and the U.S. foursome of Nick Brunelli, Lochte, Matt Grevers and Jason Lezak took bronze in 3:11.92.<\/p>\n
The hometown crowd surely was behind China\u2019s Qi Hui in the women\u2019s 400 individual medley. Trailing at the 200-meter point, Qi used her breaststroke strength to take the lead by the 300-meter mark and rolled to victory in 4:34.28. Italy\u2019s Alessia Filippi wrapped up the silver medal in 4:35.32 and Russia\u2019s Anastasia Ivanenko was third in 4:35.54. The United States\u2019 Kaitlin Sandeno (4:36.56) and Alicia Aemisegger (4:37.03) were fifth and sixth.<\/p>\n
In semifinal action, Australia\u2019s Jade Edmistone and Brooke Hanson led qualifying in the women\u2019s 50 breaststroke (30.23\/30.25). America\u2019s Tara Kirk was third in 30.57 and Jessica Hardy was sixth in 30.80. Aussie Matt Welsh led the way in the men\u2019s 100 back with a clocking of 51.43, ahead of the 51.81 of Austria\u2019s Markus Rogan. Randall Bal and Matt Grevers of the U.S. were fourth and sixth.<\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s Janine Pietsch set a championship record in the semifinals of the women\u2019s 100 back (58.31) and the Ukraine\u2019s Oleg Lisogor was tops in the 100 breast (58.32). Brazil\u2019s Kaio Almeida was first in the men\u2019s 100 fly in 51.10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SHANGHAI, China, April 5. THE first night of the World Short Course Championships, held in Shanghai, featured several familiar names landing on the medal podium. Leading the way was Australia\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n