DOHA, Qatar (AP) – Italy’s Simona Cuadarella goes for another gold medal as Katie Ledecky decides to stay home…
DOHA, Qatar (AP) – Italy’s Simona Quadarella won another gold medal in the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships on Tuesday while Katie Ledecky decided to stay home.
Cuadarella began to pull away from the pack around 500 meters and finished with a lead of nearly half a lap in 15 minutes, 46.99 seconds.
“I tried to start slow and then try to speed up,” Cuadarella said.
Ledecky, an American star who has dominated freestyle distance racing for the past decade, had won five of the past six world titles in the 1500m class. But like many of swimming’s biggest names, she decided to skip the coronavirus-postponed world and focus on this year’s Paris Olympics.
Cuadarella also won the 1,500 title in 2019, when Ledecky was sick and injured. But the 25-year-old Italian will have to go even faster if he is to have a chance of winning gold in Paris.
Ledecky, the current Olympic gold medalist, won last summer’s world championships in Fukuoka with a time of 15 minutes, 26.27 seconds, more than 17 seconds ahead of second place Cuadarella.
China’s Li Bingjie won the silver medal with a time of 15:56.62, just ahead of bronze medalist Isabelle Gosset of Germany (15:57.55).
In the opening race of the night at Doha’s Aspire Dome, Hwang Seong-woo won the men’s 200m freestyle, giving South Korea its second gold medal of the tournament.
Fan picked up the pace in the first two laps, and American Luke Hobson took the lead with 50 meters to go. However, Juan took the lead again on the final lap and held off the hot pursuit Danas Lapsis to win in 1 minute 44.75 seconds.
Lapsis, who won the semifinals, won the silver medal with a time of 1:45.05. Hobson won the bronze medal with a time of 1:45.26.
The 20-year-old two-time short course world champion scored the biggest win of his career in the big pool.
“I don’t have a long-distance course gold medal,” Huang said. “But I was able to do that today, so I’m very happy.”
Hwang’s victory followed his compatriot Kim Woo-min’s victory in the 400m freestyle.
Hobson was part of a scaled-down team for these world championships, giving himself a huge boost with the Paris Olympics just five months away.
“I’m really excited about this summer,” said Hobson, a Nevada native who will compete at the University of Texas. “I think this is a promising result for the future and I can’t wait.”
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