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Doha (AFP) – Ukraine’s Vladislav Bukhov caused consternation by saying Russia’s participation in the Paris Olympics was “absolutely unacceptable” after winning his first world swimming title in Doha on Saturday.
Publication of: change:
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The 21-year-old said the preparations had been tough after he beat two previous world champions to the wall to win the men’s 50m freestyle.
“It’s tough, it’s really tough,” he said. “We’re training while Russian rockets are flying around the pool. We don’t know if we’ll be alive or not. It’s difficult. For all Ukrainians.”
Asked if Russians should compete at the Paris Olympics in five months’ time, he said: “Absolutely not.”
“I would like to say that Russia is dangerous and should not be supported in competition.”
Bukhov was the slowest to react from the starting blocks, but beat defending champion Cameron McEvoy of Australia by a hundredth of a second to win his first world championship medal.
He was 0.09 seconds behind Britain’s Ben Proud, who won in Budapest two years ago.
“It’s really tough. We don’t know who’s going to win,” Bukhov said. “I just did my job.”
Sprint queen Sarah Sjostrom won the 50m butterfly, winning her 13th world title.
The Swede, who won her first world title in Rome in 2009, won in 24.63 seconds, beating French swimmer Melanie Hennig by a decisive 0.81 seconds. Egypt’s Farida Osman was third.
The 30-year-old is the only woman to break 25 seconds in this event.
All of Sjostrom’s 12 individual titles have been over 50 or 100 meters in the freestyle or butterfly, but he withdrew from the 100 free in Doha.
Sjostrom is not “greedy”
“I don’t want to be greedy,” she said. “If you look at all the medals I’ve already won, you’ll see why I don’t need to race more.”
With Saturday’s victory, she won the 50m butterfly world title for the sixth year in a row.
Henike and Osman each won their third world championship medals, but neither has yet won a gold medal.
Hennik won the silver medal behind Sjostrom two years ago. Osman has won three bronze medals, all in races won by Sjostrom.
Claire Curzan of the United States won the women’s individual backstroke event by winning the 200 meters.
The 19-year-old American also won the 200m in 2:05.77, beating 17-year-old Australian Jaclyn Barclay by 1.26 seconds, and added gold medals in the 50m and 100m backstroke. Increased. Anastasiya Shkurdai was neutral and finished third. .
Diogo Ribeiro, also 19, added the 100m to his 50m title to complete the men’s butterfly double.
The Portuguese won in 51.17 seconds, beating Austria’s Simon Butcher by 0.121 seconds.
Italy’s Simona Cuadarella overrode German Isabelle Gosse on the final lap to double her record and win the 800m free in 8:17.44.
New Zealand’s Erica Fairweather won the bronze medal, almost five seconds behind.
Cuadalera also won gold in the 1,500 meters on Tuesday in the absence of America’s Katie Ledecky, who has dominated the women’s pool’s longest race for 10 years but is focused on the U.S. Olympic Trials.
© 2024 AFP
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