August 15, 2011
WRITTEN BY SHARON ROBB
Timothy Phillips, coming off senior nationals, won two gold medals for the United States on the second night of the World University Games in Shenzhen, China.
Phillips, who won the 100-meter butterfly national title, won the 50-meter butterfly in a career-best 23.51 seconds.
Phillips overcame a slow start to finish ahead of Italy’s Paolo Faccinello (23.85) and Japan’s Masayuki Kishida (23.93).
“I’m extremely happy with my swim tonight,” Phillips said. “I had a much better kick out than this morning giving me the win. I couldn’t be happier.”
Phillips came back later in the night to swim the second leg of the winning 4×100-meter freestyle relay with Jimmy Feigen, Kohlton Norys and Bobby Savulich in 3:15.85, nearly two seconds ahead of Brazil (3:17.40) and France (3:18.78).
“The United States has a long history of successful relays,” Savulich said. “We wanted to win this gold medal for our country and become part of the examples that have inspired us.”
Other medal winners for the U.S.:
Michael Klueh, competing in his third Games, won the 800-meter freestyle in 7:52.31. Klueh, the 2007 Games gold medalist, was trailing until the final 50 meters when he turned in a split of 27.34 to overtake Italy’s Rocco Potenza (7:53.45) and Japan’s Yohsuke Miyamoto (7:56.29).
Stephanie Peacock of Cape Coral was third in the 400-meter freestyle in 4:10.25 for her first international medal.
Megan Romano of St. Petersburg took a bronze in the 100-meter freestyle in 55.38.
In other championship finals, New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle won her second gold medal of the Games in the 400-meter freestyle in 4:07.97 after winning the 800-meter freestyle on opening day in 8:26.55.
China’s Tang Yi won the women’s 100-meter freestyle in a meet record 54.24.
Japan’s Izumi Kato won the women’s 200-meter individual medley in 2:13.52.
Gareth Kean of New Zealand won the 100-meter backstroke in 54.71.
More Swimming
Aussie Trent Grimsey won the fifth leg of the FINA 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup 2011 in Lac Megantic, Canada. Grimsey went virtually unchallenged to finish in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 47 seconds. Canadians Simon Tobin was second in 2:19:53 and Zac Parkes third in 2:19:59. Canadian Joanie Guillemette-Simard won a close women’s race in 2:30:51. Teammate Jade Dusablon was second in 2:30:52 and American Heidi George was third in 2:30:52.…The third FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, with 700 swimmers from 60 countries will get under way on Tuesday in Lima, Peru. The meet continues through Sunday. Swimmers will compete at the Campo de Mart Complex which recently hosted the South American Age Group Championships. It is the first time Peru has hosted the FINA event.
“It is certainly an endless work for all those in charge of building up a successful competition, considering that this is the first time in our history that we hold an event of this importance,” said Juan Carlos Bello, president of the Peruvian Swimming Federation….
Suriname hung on to win the team title at the Goodwill Swim Meet with 1,425 points. Host Trinidad and Tobago finished second with 1,415.50 points. Barbados was third with 1,085.50 and Guyana fourth with 218.
Suriname finished with 132 medals including 36 gold medals. Trinidad and Tobago won 120 medals including 50 gold medals.
Trinidad and Tobago broke three more meet records.
Ariel Cape, 12, broke the girls 11-12 100-meter backstroke record in 1:13.06. Jonathan Fabio, 14, broke the 13-14 50-meter freestyle record in 25.42 and was also high point winner with 66.50 points. Johnnya Ferdinand, 13, broke the girls 13-14 100-meter breaststroke record in 1:21.32. Marie Marcano, 15, and Josiah Morales, 16, were also high point winners for Trinidad and Tobago.
Former Coral Springs Swim Club swimmer and two-time Olympian Sharntelle McLean coached the Trinidad and Tobago team.
Diving
Troy Dumais and Kris Ipsen won the men’s 3-meter synchro title at the AT&T U.S. National Championships in Los Angeles. The pair combined to score 459.00 points. Chris Colwill and Drew Livingston were second with 390.03 points. It was Ipsen’s second gold medal after winning the individual 3-meter springboard event.
Two-time Duke NCAA champion Nick McCrory led from wire-to-wire to win the men’s 10-meter platform title with 497.35. Reigning world silver medalist and Olympian David Boudia, a senior at Purdue, was second with 469.90 points.
Cassidy Krug won the women’s 3-meter springboard title, her second gold medal in two days. She also won the synchro event.
University of Miami’s Lindsay Lester was ninth on 3-meter springboard. The sophomore finished with 256.00. Lester had already qualified for the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials by qualifying for the final round.
“Our next focus is getting back into the NCAA season,” UM diving coach Randy Ableman said. “So, we want to try and place as high as we can and possibly win an NCAA title this year. At the same time, we want to prepare for the Olympic trials.”
Water Polo
Stanford alum Jason Wigo of Fort Lauderdale scored two goals to lead the U.S. come-from-behind rally for an 11-8 victory over France at the World University Games. Twin brother Drac Wigo also scored for the U.S. which is 2-1 in pool play….Canada defeated the United States, 7-6, to win the women’s gold medal at the Pan American Youth Water Polo 17-and-Under Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Sharon Robb can be reached at sha11cats@aol.com
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