WATER SPORT - Two more World Junior Records were cracked on the second day of the Fina/airweave Swimming World Cup in Beijing 2017 while Vladimir Morozov of Russia, Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden and Chad le Clos of South Africa continued their winning streaks on Saturday, November 11.
Morozov took the gold medal in the men's 100m individual medley in 50.36 seconds, 0.06 seconds shy of the world record.
Michael Andrew of the United States came second with a world junior record of 51.86.
Morozov also sprinted to win the 50m freestyle in 20.83, beating Shinri Shioura of Japan (21.27) and Andrii Govorov of Ukraine (21.30).
"My goal is to break the world record in the 100m IM. I got very closed to that and I was happy with that. The 50m butterfly was my best as well as 50m freestyle. I did a lot training before this cluster competition. I will compete 100m freestyle in Tokyo and try to break the world record. I was very close while I will swim 100m IM in Singapore. That is my last chance to try to break that record before the European championships," said Morozov who finished fifth in the 50m butterfly.
Wang Jianjiahe of China came out as the new star when the 15-year-old celebrated her second world junior record at the Water Cube by winning the women's 800m freestyle in 8:12.30 while her teammate Hou Yawen took the silver in 8:15.04. The previous mark of 8:15.35 was set by Wang last month in Doha.
"I should say I enjoyed the home advantages rather than competing in other countries. I felt excited here in Beijing though I did not train much last month. Since it is my first year to swim the World Cup, I learned a lot from others. I take Katie Ledecky as my idol and I watched her competition on TV and internet. I really want to be a champion like her in the future," said Wang, who set a world junior record in the 400m freestyle on Friday.
