TAEGU, South Korea, 26 August 2003 — Olympic champion Yana Klochkova was in a class of her own as the Ukrainian stormed to victory in the 200 meters individual medley on the opening day of swimming at the World University Games yesterday.
The 21-year-old, who won gold in the 200 and 400 at the World Championships in Barcelona last month, clocked a new games best of two minutes 13.32 seconds — modest by her standards but still way too good for her rivals in Taegu.
Klochkova was inside world record pace through 50 meters but slowed considerably after the first turn with only China’s Qi Hui offering any serious challenge. Qi, joint world record holder in the 200 breaststroke, settled for silver in 2:15.86 with Japan’s Maiko Fujino taking bronze in 2:17.41.
Overall, Russia had its best day of the games so far, winning eight gold medals to top the standings. Russia leads the gold medal standings with 12, one more than hosts South Korea, with China on 10.
In the pool, Czech world silver medals Ilona Hlavackova won the gold medal in the women’s 50 meters backstroke in 29.04 seconds. American Beth Anne Botsford, who has dropped off the radar since winning two gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, touched second in 29.27.
Petra Dallmann, part of the German team that set the 4x100 freestyle world record at the European championships last year, powered to victory in the women’s 100 freestyle, clocking 55.51 ahead of China’s Xu Yanwei (55.88).
Demerae Christianson made amends for the US as she clocked 1:00.42 to win the women’s 100 butterfly, while Russian Yuri Prilukov won the men’s 800 freestyle title in a new games record of 7:54.18.
Meanwhile, there was a second gold medal for Britain, whose men edged out Australia to win the 4x100 freestyle title in 3:20.59.
In the diving, world champions Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia comfortably won gold in the women’s three-meter synchronised, while Wang Feng led a Chinese one-two in the men’s one-meter individual springboard.
The athletics opened with double gold for Russia as Stepan Yudin won the men’s 20 kilometers walk in one hour, 23.34 seconds and Tatiana Sibileva took the women’s title in 1:34.55.
