Mon, July 13, 2009
BELGRADE, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Eight swimming gold medals were split on the last swimming competition day of the Universiade here on Saturday.
Belarus's Aleksandra Gerasimenya took the first gold medal in the pool today in the women's 50m freestyle by 24.62 seconds, which was a fresh Universiade record.
Gerasimenya, silver medallist of the women's 100m freestyle and bronze medallist of the 50m backstroke at Universiade, finally grabbed a gold.
German Dorothea Brandt finished second by 25.03. American Michelle King took the bronze by 25.10.
Poland claimed its fourth swimming gold as Mateusz Matczak triumphed in the men's 400m individual medley by 4:12.28, 0.2 seconds faster than American Alex Vanderkaay, the silver medallist. Japanese Horihata Yuya came third by 4:15.26.
Annika Mehlhorn gifted Germany a gold on the women's 200m butterfly, timing 2:07.35 ahead of Lyndsay De Paul of the United States on 2:09.89. Minamizono Haruka brought Japan a bronze by 2:10.01.
In the men's 50m freestyle, Andrea Rolla of Italy triumphed on 22.16, while Boris Steimetz of France and Sergey Fesikov of Russia both finished 22.19 to take the silver.
Daria Deeva of Russia denied Kim Dal Eun's efforts to bring South Korea its first gold, timing 31.55 for the women's 50m breaststroke victory. Kim settled for a silver by 31.57.
Canada also grabbed a gold on Saturday as Kevyn Peterson won the women's 400m freestyle relay by 4:10.01. United States pocketed a silver in the event while South Africa took the bronze.
The United States and Japan also pocketed one gold each by the women's and men's 4x100m medley relay respectively.
The United States, which claimed 10 gold, 12 silver and 4 bronze on the swimming competition at Belgrade, ranked first in the medal standing, while Japan came second with 10 gold, 6 silver and 14 bronze.
