World Aquatics C'ships: Italy's Ceccon Wins Men's 50m Butterfly; China Wins Men's 100m Breaststroke (round-up)

Thomas Ceccon: Italy's Thomas Ceccon won the men's 50 meters butterfly title while China bagged the men's 100m breaststroke and women's 100m butterfly gold medals in the swimming section of the World Aquatics Championships here on Monday.

Ceccon, the 100m backstroke gold winner at last year's Budapest world championships, emerged a surprise victor in 22.68 seconds.Portugal's Diogo Matos Ribeiro took silver in 22.80 seconds, and Frenchman Maxime Grousset settled for bronze in 22.82, reports Xinhua.

 

China's Qin Haiyang claimed the men's 100 meters breaststroke title on Monday.

The 24-year-old, who had already registered the world's top three times this season, clocked 57.69 seconds to become the first Chinese men's breaststroker to win a world title. The winning time is also a new Asian record, 0.13 seconds faster than the one he set in Sunday's semifinals.

"I can do better," said Qin to the audience after his victory. Italy's Nicolo Martinenghi, Dutchman Arno Kamminga and American veteran Nic Fink were all awarded a silver medal after clocking an identical time of 58.72 seconds.

Qin, competing in the 100m breaststroke for the first time in his four World Championships since 2017, is China's first swimming champion at the Fukuoka world championships, lifting the country's gold tally to 16.

He has also become China's fifth male world champion in swimming since Zhang Lin won the men's 800 meters freestyle at the 2009 Rome world championships.

China's Zhang Yufei won her first world title in the women's 100 meters butterfly on Monday.

Zhang, the 200m butterfly champion and 100m silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, clocked 56.12 seconds to earn China the second gold in swimming at the Fukuoka world championships, only minutes after Qin Haiyang triumphed in the men's 100m breaststroke.

"I feel wonderful. It is amazing," said 25-year-old Zhang, who collected seven bronze medals in her four previous worlds.

Canada's Margaret MacNeil finished second in 56.45 seconds, and defending champion Torri Huske of the United States was third in 56.61.

Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh, bronze and silver medalists respectively at the Tokyo Olympic Games, gave the United States a 1-2 finish in the women's 200 metres individual medley (IM). China's 17-year-old Yu Yiting won the bronze medal.

Douglass claimed her first world title in a time of two minutes 7.17 seconds while defending champion Walsh finished second in 2:07.97.