Ukraine’s Vladyslav Bukhov sprung a surprise as he claimed his first world swimming title in Doha on Saturday and then said Russia should “absolutely not” be allowed at the Paris Olympics.
After the 21-year-old edged the two previous world champions to the wall to win the men’s 50m freestyle, he said his preparation had been tough.
“It’s hard, really hard,” he said. “We train while Russian rockets are flying round the swimming pool. You never know if you stay alive or not. It’s difficult. For all Ukrainians.” Asked if Russians should compete at the Paris Olympics in five months, he said: “Absolutely not.”
“I want to say Russia is dangerous and should not be supported in competition.”
Bukhov had the slowest reaction time off the starting blocks, but claimed his first world championship medal as he beat Australian defending champion Cameron McEvoy to the touch by one hundredth of a second.
Britain’s Ben Proud, the winner two years ago in Budapest, was 0.09sec back. “Really tough. Never know who wins,” said Bukhov. “I just did my job.”
McEvoy, who was fastest out of the blocks, said: “Of course I wanted the gold medal and you always want to post good times so in that respect I am a little disappointed.
“I would have liked to have gone a little bit better in the final but I’ve got to be happy after the butterfly too earlier in the week.
“My main goal for this meet was to come here and see how fast I can go. Overall, it was a good week. The nature of the 50 free is that one little thing goes wrong and things kind of skew out.
“But this is all part of the process and to accumulate data ahead of Paris … but if I was to tell my 2016 to 2022 self that I would be standing here right now, just 0.01 off a second world title … I’d be super proud.”
Pan Zhanle swam another blazing 100m freestyle relay leg as he set China on track for another gold with the lead-off in the mixed 100m relay, Pan swam 47.29, faster than his winning time in the individual final but slower than his world record 46.80sec leading off the men’s 100m relay final last Sunday.
The Chinese quartet led throughout to finish in 3min 21.18sec, set an Asian record and beat Australia (Kai Taylor, Jack Cartwright, Shayna Jack and Brianna Throssell) by 0.60sec. The United States were another half second back in third.
Pan and 18-year-old Wang Haoyu, who were also part of the Chinese team that took the men’s 200m freestyle relay, both collected their third team golds of the competition Li Bingjie, who was part of China’s victorious women’s 200m quartet, won her second relay gold of the championships.
Sprint queen Sarah Sjostrom collected her 13th world title when she won the 50m butterfly.
The Swede, who claimed her first world title in 2009 in Rome, won in 24.63sec, finishing a decisive 0.81sec ahead of French swimmer Melanie Henique. Egyptian Farida Osman was third.
The 30-year-old remains the only woman to break 25sec in the event. Sjostrom’s 12 individual titles have all come over 50m or 100m in either freestyle or butterfly but she withdrew from the 100m free in Doha.
“I don’t want to be greedy,” she said. “Look at all my medals I won already and you will know why I don’t have to do that many races any more.”
Saturday’s victory was her sixth straight 50m butterfly world title. Henique and Osman each won a third world championship medal, neither has yet won a gold.
Henique took a silver behind Sjostrom two years ago. Osman has three bronzes, all in races Sjostrom won.
American Claire Curzan completed a sweep of the women’s individual backstroke events as she won the 200m.
The 19-year-old American added to her 50m and 100m backstroke golds as she won the 200m in 2min 5.77sec, 1.26sec ahead of 17-year-old Australian Jaclyn Barclay (who swam a personal best) with Anastasiya Shkurdai, a Belarusian swimming as a neutral, in third.
Another 19-year-old, Diogo Ribeiro, completed a men’s butterfly double as he added 100m to his 50m title.
The Portuguese won in 51.17sec, 0.121sec ahead of Austrian Simon Bucher. Italian Simona Quadarella completed a double of her own as she overhauled German Isabel Gose on the last lap to win the 800m free in 8:17.44.
Erika Fairweather of New Zealand took bronze almost five seconds behind. In the absence of American Katie Ledecky, who has dominated the longest women’s pool races for a decade but is focusing on the U.S. Olympic trials, Quadarella also took the 1500 gold on Tuesday.
The competition ends on Sunday with eight finals in the pool.
