Japan Enjoys Final Day of Swimming

Japanese women swimmers made a big splash on the final day of swimming competitions at the 21st World University Games with three gold medals out of six on offer on Wednesday.

Yuko Nakanishi started the Japanese golden haul in the women's 200m butterfly, storming home with a time of two minutes 09.84 seconds.

Russian E Vinogradova came second in 2:11.09 and pace setter Margaretha Pedder of Great Britain and faded in the last split finishing in 2:12.48.

Reiko Nakamura, 18, continued the Japanese winning streak in women's 200m backstroke with a clear-cut victory in 2:11.88, well ahead of her teammate Tomoko Hagiwara in 2:13.26 and France's Roxana Maracineanu in 2:15.42.

Nakamura, who failed to enter the 200m backstroke final in Fukuoka World Championships last month, said:"I am very happy to win the gold after my disappointed world championships."

Tiny Yuko Sakaguchi with a height of 1.53m, overcoming a sluggish start and trailing all the way, grabbed the title in women's 200m breaststroke in 2:29.64, beating Germany Anne Poleska and Chinese Zhang Yi, respectively.

American swimmers snatched two golds when Clay Kirkland came from behind to win in the men's 200m freestyle in 1:50.03 and its team triumphed in the men's 4x100m medley relay in 3:39.49, a new meet record.

The American quartet led from the beginning with the help of their double-gold medalist Peter Marshall in the backstroke and maintained their lead in the last 50 meters.

Ukraine, who eyed on the relay gold, had to settle for a silver 3:40.44 and France, who wore special Chinese costume and bamboo hats before they made a splash in 3:41.20, both beating the old meet mark.

Marshall, who collected his third gold medal at the Games, said: "It is more excited to join a relay team and to win the gold than in an individual event."

Ukrainian Igor Chervynskiy blitzed the rest of the field, winning the men's 1,500m freestyle in 15:14.43. Italian Luca Baldini was second in 15:16.14 and American John Cole third in 15: 23.31.

After eight-day competition, the United States, who sent their second-string team, led the medal standing with 11 golds, 11 silvers and 9 bronzes, while Japan was second with seven golds, six silvers and eight bronzes.

Ukraine, with the help of their world champions Yana Klochkova and Oleg Lisogor, just reached their seven-gold goal set before the Games and host China came to fourth place with four golds.

The World University Games, which ran from August 23 to 29, drew about 603 swimmers and coaches from 63 countries and regions.






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