American swimmer Claire Curzan wins her fourth gold medal at the World Championships

DOHA, QATAR — Renowned swimmers Claire Curzan of the United States and Pan Zanle of China won their fourth gold medal at the World Championships on Saturday.

Curzan dominated the 200m backstroke final from start to finish, winning by 1.26 seconds over 17-year-old Australian Jaclyn Barkley. Karzan previously won the 50 meters and 100 meters, as well as the 4×100 mixed medley relay, and won a series of backstroke gold medals.

“Honestly, I’m really happy that it’s finished,” she said. “I’m just happy with how I swam and can’t wait to see what this means for the future.”

Belarusian Anastasia Shkurdai, who competed as a neutral athlete, won the bronze medal.

Pan and China beat Australia and the United States to win the 4×100 mixed freestyle relay, which is not an Olympic event. Pan showed off another strong lead-off swim and swam the fastest 100 meters ever in the opening stages of the championships. . 4×100 men’s freestyle relay. This was her third gold medal at the world championships in relay.

Ukraine’s Vladislav Bukhov provided the surprise of the night with an upset victory over last year’s winner Cameron McEvoy in the 50m freestyle.

Bukhov got off to a slow start, but timed his final run to the wall perfectly to win in 21.44 seconds, beating McEvoy by 0.01. Britain’s Ben Proud won the bronze medal.

Australia’s McEvoy swam 21.13 seconds in his heat, beating the world record set by Cesar Cielo in 2009 by 0.21 seconds, but was slower in the semi-finals and final. “I would have liked to have done a little better in the final, but I have to be happy with my three (swims) in total,” McEvoy said ahead of the Paris Olympics.

Katie Ledecky’s streak of world titles in the 800 free came to an end when Italy’s Simona Cuadarella won the gold medal, but Ledecky was not at the meet. Cuadarella was neck and neck with Germany’s Isabelle Gose, but she beat her by 0.09 seconds before touching the wall. Third place went to New Zealand’s Erica Fairweather.

Following his victory in the 1,500 meters, Cuadalera also won two gold medals in the distance events.

Ledecky, who has won six consecutive titles in this event, is one of many top swimmers to skip world championships to focus on training for the Paris Olympics.

Portugal’s Diogo Matos Ribeiro won the 100 butterfly, taking gold after winning the 50 fly earlier in the championship. Austria’s Simon Bucher won the silver medal, and Poland’s Jakub Majerski won the bronze medal. World champion Maxime Grousset and Olympic gold medalist Caleb Dressel were absent.

Sweden’s Sara Sjöström won her sixth consecutive world title in the non-Olympic 50 butterfly, beating out France’s Melanie Hennik and Egypt’s Farida Osman.

water polo

Croatia defeated Italy in a penalty shootout in the men’s water polo competition, winning the gold medal with an 11-11 draw within regulation and clinching their first world title since 2017.

Italy were on their way to victory until Croatia’s Lino Bulic scored with five seconds left to force a penalty shootout.

Spain defeated France 14-10 to win the bronze medal.