MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015
S P ORTS
KAZAN: South Korea’s Nam Yoosun competes in the women’s 400m individual medley swimming event at the 2015 FINA World Championships. —AFP
Worlds end as Sun fails to start KAZAN: Mystery surrounded the conclusion of the world championships yesterday when China’s twice champion and favorite Sun Yang failed to start the men’s 1,500m freestyle final won by Gregorio Paltrinieri. As the Italian celebrated his first world title the sport’s governing body FINA said a chest complaint had caused the Sun to pull out minutes before the distance race, denying him the chance to claim his third title of the week. “I feel very sorry that I couldn’t be present for the 1500m,” Sun told reporters. “I didn’t feel good in my heart. Today I felt really uncomfortable at the pool during my warmup and I had to give up the idea of competing. I feel really sorry about that. “It happened after the warm-up as I was preparing for the competition. It is the first time I have felt uncomfortable in competition.” Sun was asked about reports that he had an altercation with a Brazilian swimmer during training in the adjacent pool. “I have no comment because it was a morning problem,” he said. In the absence of Sun, who won the 400m and 800m freestyle
titles not on the blocks, Paltrinieri set a European record 14 minute 39.67 seconds to claim gold. But the Italian was nearly made to pay for his opening 800m as pursuing American Connor Jaeger finished 1.53 seconds behind with Canadian Ryan Cochrane third. France continued its domination of the men’s 50m races with Camille Lacourt retaining his 50m backstroke title in 24.23 secondsthe fifth fastest in histor y as he held off American Matt Grevers and Australia’s Ben Treffers. The women’s 50m breaststroke final provided two shocks as Sweden’s Jennie Johansson touched for gold in 30.05 seconds with Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson runner-up. Yuliya Efimova, the controversial Russian who was returning to major competition after a drugs ban, finished third. FIRST FOUR Ruta Meilutyte, the Lithuanian favourite, had twice gone under 30 seconds ahead of the final but finished fourth with only 0.09
seconds separating the first four. Rising Australian Bronte Campbell clocked 24.12 seconds to win the women’s 50m freestyle, adding to her 100m title. Campbell, younger sister of fourth-placed Cate, held off world and Olympic champion Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands by 0.10 seconds with Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom third. Japan’s defending champion Daiya Seto produced a searing breaststroke leg to take command of the men’s 400m individual medley final, then stayed composed on the freestyle section to win in the year ’s fastest time. Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu was inside world record pace at the final turn as she just held on to defend her title and complete the 200m and 400m individual medley double. Hosszu clocked 4:30.39 over 400m — 0.08 seconds outside her Hungarian record-with fast-finishing Maya DiRado taking silver and Emily Overholt of Canada bronze. The men’s 4x100m medley relay saw the United States regain world bragging rights with their quartet posting 3:29.93 to leave Australia and defending champions France in
Medals table KAZAN, Russia: World swimming championships overall medals table after the final day of competition yesterday (gold, silver, bronze, total): China United States Russia Australia Great Britain France Italy Hungary Sweden Japan South Africa Germany Brazil North Korea Serbia Netherlands
15 13 9 7 7 5 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 0
10 14 4 3 1 1 3 3 2 1 3 1 4 0 0 9
10 6 4 8 6 1 8 4 1 4 0 4 2 1 0 0
35 33 17 18 14 7 14 10 6 8 5 7 7 2 1 9
their wake. In the closing women’s 4x100m medley final, fastest qualifiers China kept up their domination to secure gold. The US topped the
Canada Denmark Ukraine Mexico New Zealand Spain Greece Poland Jamaica Croatia Lithuania Argentina Belarus Malaysia Singapore
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
4 2 1 0 0 2 2 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 1
8 4 3 2 2 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1
final medal table, with 23 in total- eight gold, 10 silver and five bronze. Australia finished on seven golds with China and Britain locked on five each.—Reuters
Nishikori sends Cilic packing WASHINGTON: Japan’s Kei Nishikori avenged his loss to Marin Cilic in last year’s US Open final, defeating the Croatian 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 Saturday to reach the ATP and WTA Washington Open final. The 25-year-old Asian number one rallied to oust the reigning US Open champion and advanced to Sunday’s title match against US eighth seed John Isner, who fired 31 aces and saved three match points to edge American Steve Johnson 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (11/9). Fifth-ranked Nishikori improved to 6-3 all-time against Cilic in their first meeting since he missed a chance to become the first Asian man to win a Grand Slam title by losing last year’s Flushing Meadows final. “It’s great to have revenge,” Nishikori said. “Today I was playing very much better against Cilic. It was important to play well. Hopefully I will keep it going.” Isner beat Nishikori four months ago in a Miami quarter-final in their only prior meeting. “Everything sort of clicked for me that day,” Isner said. “I played extremely well. That was my best match of the year. I’m probably going to have to bring that again tomorrow.” Isner seeks his 11th career ATP title after winning last week in Atlanta while Nishikori seeks his 10th career title after crowns at Memphis and Barcelona this year. “It was a great win for me,” Nishikori said. “Overall, I’m playing well, very aggressive. The last two sets I was very happy with my tennis.” Despite the defeat, eighth-ranked Cilic felt the week was a solid start on the path to defending his US Open crown. “Overall I’m pretty satisfied with the way I was playing,” Cilic said. “Definitely it has given me some vision of what I’m going to focus on
the next days and weeks. “In my next match I will try and be more focused on my serve, to be more deadly.” On the women’s side, American Sloane Stephens reached her first WTA career final by eliminating Australian second seed Samantha Stosur 7-6 (7/4), 6-0. She will play for the title against Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who advanced 4-6, 6-3 when top-seeded compatriot Ekaterina Makarova retired with a right leg injury. Stephens ended her long wait in her 84th WTA tournament, having been the world’s highest-ranked player without a finals appearance at 35th, six prior semifinal losses including the 2013 Australian Open. “Finally, the long-awaited final,” Stephens said. “I don’t know how it’s supposed to feel. It’s like OK, what now? Now people can stop talking about me I’m really happy to do it.” Cilic won the first set in 35 minutes but Nishikori roared back in the second to force a third. After double-faulting away a break in the eighth game, Nishikori broke for a 54 lead and held for the triumph. “I started to hit a little more aggressively in the second set,” Nishikori said. “I had to change mentally a little bit. The third set he came back and I had to concentrate again.” Isner, the 2007 and 2012 Washington runner-up, and Johnson exchanged lone breaks over the first two sets. In the tiebreaker, Johnson missed a forehand on his first match point and Isner fired the first of four consecutive aces to save the second. The drama turned when Isner charged the net and hit a backhand volley winner, then closed the match with a service winner. “My serve bailed me out,” Isner said. “I’m so excited to be back in the final. Hopefully it’ll be third time lucky.”—AFP
KAZAN: Slobodan Nikic of Serbia (right) looks to pass the ball during the men’s final water polo match between Croatia and Serbia on day fifteen of the 16th FINA World Championships. —AFP
Serbia sink Croatia to take world title KAZAN: Serbia won their second world water polo championship as an independent nation in an 11-4 rout of traditional rivals Croatia in the
final on Saturday. The Serbians, reigning European champions, stormed back from an early 2-0 deficit and turned the match on its head
Pliskova stops Lepchenko
WASHINGTON: Kei Nishikori, of Japan, returns the ball against Marin Cilic of Croatia, at the Citi Open tennis tournament. —AP
CALIFORNIA: Czech Karlina Pliskova stopped upset-maker Varvara Lepchenko in the semifinals at the Bank of The West Classic in Stanford, California, on Saturday. Lepchenko had ousted top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark earlier in the week, but Pliskova put an end to the Uzbek’s run with an impressive 6-2 7-5 victory. Pliskova will meet fifth-seeded German Angelique Kerber in Sunday’s final. Kerber met little resistance in dispatching Elina Svitolina 6-3 6-1. Fourth seed Pliskova looked to be charging into the final but Lepchenko put up one more gritty stand to test the Czech. Lepchenko
trailed 4-2 in the second set before winning three games in a row to go 5-4 up before Pliskova returned the favor by claiming the next three to close the match out. Pliskova had already assured herself of cracking the top 10 with her strong season but took pride in Saturday’s victory that gives her another chance at her maiden premier-level win. “I already knew I’d be in the top-10, so I’m even more happy I’m playing the finals,” Pliskova added. “Now I know I belong in the top-10.” This is Pliskova’s fourth trip to a final this year after losses in Sydney, Dubai and Birmingham, where she succumbed to Kerber. —Reuters
with six unanswered goals against the Olympic title holders. Full back Andrija Prlainovic led the winners with three goals and their ironclad defence, superbly marshalled by second-choice goalkeeper Branislav Mitrovic, stifled out the Croatians at the other end. Trailing 5-2 at halftime, Croatia gave themselves a glimmer of hope by keeping the deficit down to three goals at the end of the third quarter (7-4) but ran out of the steam in the final eight minutes. “It has been the greatest honour in my life to captain this team,” Serbia captain Zivko Gocic told the country’s national RTS television. “They are great characters with a big heart.” Prlainovic was named the final’s most valuable player. “We’ve made history tonight because no one has won the world title so emphatically,” he said. “It’s been a privilege.” It was the first time the countries had met in a world final in any team sport as independent nations since the former Yugoslavia’s break-up. —Reuters
