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Fina World Junior: More gold, records go Down Under Moni Mathews / 30 August 2013 Swimmers from Down Under once again stamped their class to nudge ahead in the gold rush in the 4th Fina World Junior Swimming Championships at the iconic Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Sports Complex off the Emirates Highway. The start of the men’s 50m backstroke final at the World Junior Swimming Championships on Thursday. — KT photos by Mukesh Kamal The qualifying honours for the six events on Thursday were spread between six different nations, as the action continued at the complex, rated to be one of the best in the world by the swimmers and the officials taking part here. The talented green and gold capped youngsters had another great night in the late events on Wednesday taking two gold and one bronze to lead the gold medal tally with six, ahead of the US with five and Russia with four. The US remains in the overall lead with 14 medals. Russia is in second with 10 and Australia third with 8. Leading the Australian charge was hot action hero Mack Horton who climbed on to the gold podium for the fourth time with a superb 800m freestyle 7:45.67. Horton took an astonishing nearly 10.3 seconds off the championship record, and winning by over 10 seconds from Jan Micka of Czech Republic (7:56.33) who added the silver to his bronze in the 400m freestyle. Pawel Furtek (7:58.33) took the bronze and Poland’s first medal of the meet. “Missing out on qualifying for Barcelona (world senior Fina meet in July) made me push myself harder in training,” Horton said. Australia also took gold in the crowd pulling 4 x100m freestyle mixed relay. Australia was led out by Luke Percy who had earlier qualified fastest for the 50m freestyle final. Shayna Jack backed up from her bronze in the 100m freestyle to swim the second leg, followed by Regan Leong who had taken gold in the boys 4x100m relay on Day 1. Australia turned in front for the last 50, but Georgia Miller had a fight on her hands with Caeleb Dressel of the US giving his all to catch her. Miller dug deep and hung on for the victory in a championship record 3:28.74. The US took silver and Russia the bronze. In the girls 200m backstroke final Kylie Stewart of the US turned the tables on the 100m gold medallist Daria Ustinova of Russia, taking gold in 2:09.74, a new championship record. The other two finals saw three nations take medals for the first time in the Dubai meet. In the boys 100m butterfly Japan’s Takaya Yasue took gold in 53.01 while Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey beat world breaststroke champion Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania for the gold with a new meet mark. Siobhan said: “I was so nervous, but so happy to swim with an Olympian. Ruta did a good job. It’s my first international competition so to win the gold is great.” New Zealand’s Gabrielle Fa’Amausili finished the girls 50m backstroke in 28.14 to qualify fastest for the semi-finals. The Kiwis who topped the medal count in a previous chapter of the championship have been fairly quiet so far in this event, with only one other appearance in a semi-final to date.   Fans brought their colours to the iconic Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Sports Complex on Thursday   Iryna Glavynk of Ukraine qualified second, with Russia’s Daria Ustinova in third. Ustinova already has a gold from the 100m backstroke and a bronze from the 200m backstroke and will be looking to add a  third medal to her collection in Friday’s final. South Africa also recorded its first fastest qualification time to date with Ryan Coetzee in the boys 50m butterfly finishing in 23.81. Dylan Carter of Trinidad and Tobago also made it through to the semis. Carter just missed a medal in the 100m backstroke final, but will have two more chances when he appears in both the 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke. The Aussies maintained their form posting the top two qualifying times in the girls 400m freestyle. Remy Fairweather finished in 4:09.75, ahead of teammate and 800m gold medallist Alanna Bowles. Fairweather is favourite for the final, having posted times almost two seconds faster than anyone else in the field prior to the championships. Russia, the dominant nation on Wednesday morning recorded the top two qualifying times for the boys 200m breaststroke. Mikhail Dorinov swam 2:13.40, with countryman Aleksandr Palatov second in 2:13.43. Ippei Watanabe of Japan qualified third. Ruta is one of the hardest working swimmers in this meet, contesting nine events. So far she has collected one gold and two silvers, and will be hoping to add to that after qualifying fastest for the girls 200m individual medley final in 2:15.10. Japan’s Emu Higuchi recorded the second best time, ahead of 400m individual medley gold medallist Ella Eastin of the US. In the final heat of the Day 4 programme of the 6-day event, Great Britain took the honours in the boys 4x200m freestyle relay with a new meet mark time of 7:19.93. Great Britain has yet to win gold, and face tough opposition from the US, Canada and Australia. The race is set to see another Mack Horton-James Guy duel. moni@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading →