Mon, July 13, 2009
BELGRADE, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Curtain was lowered for the seven-day swimming competitions at the Belgrade University Games here on Saturday, as the United States and Japan pocketed half of the gold medals on offer.
The swimming powerhouse United States showed its supremacy in the pool at Belgrade by taking 10 gold, 12 silver and 4 bronze.
"We are satisfied with the result," said Jack Roach, team leader of the U.S. swimming team. "The swimmers here are not the first-class in America, and see what they get? Phelps was not here, and we are still the No.1 in swimming."
However, Roach had to admit that Japan surprised most people here at Universiade, as they grabbed as much gold as the U.S. did.
The Japanese swimming team finished with 10 gold, 6 silver and 14 bronze to trail their American rival.
"The Japanese team performed overwhelmingly this time," said Roach. "We mush admit that they will be our biggest rival in the World Championships in Rome."
Different from the U.S. team, the Japanese swimmers took the Universiade as a warm-up event for the World Championships coming on July. 19, and for that reason many of the best swimmers came to Belgrade, including "backstroke king" Irie Ryosuke and world record holder Sakai Shiho.
"Our swimmers did a fantastic job here," said Kojima Tsuyoshi, coach of the Japanese team. "More than half of them will go to Rome for the worlds."
Poland came third on the medal tally with 4 gold and 2 bronze, followed by Italy with 2 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze.
Chinese Hong Kong won its first Universiade swimming gold here by Hanna Wilson in the women's 100m freestyle, and Wilson grabbed her second soon to help Chinese Hong Kong ranked seven in the medal tally with two gold.
The Chinese team finished with two silver and a bronze, ranked 15 in the medal tally.
"Actually it was beyond our expectation," said Xu Fei, the team leader. "Our best swimmers were busy preparing for the worlds and could not come here, so the result was good. We only expected one medal, but we took three now."
