JERUSALEM, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's junior swimmers Wang Xizhe and Zhang Zhanshuo clinched medals on the third day of the 2023 World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Netanya, Israel.
Wang Xizhe clocked in at 52.65 seconds in the men's 100m butterfly final, narrowly beating Austria's Lukas Edl by 0.03 seconds to claim the silver medal. The gold medal went to Denmark's Casper Puggaard, champion of the 2023 European junior championships, with a time of 52.30 seconds.
In the dramatic men's 800m freestyle final, Zhang Zhanshuo made a strong comeback of 1.5 seconds in the final 50 meters, overtaking Romania's Vlad Stancu to secure a valuable bronze medal in 7:50.03. Türkiye's Kuzey Tuncelli narrowly beat Petar Mitsin of Bulgaria to win the gold. He finished in 7:48.75, breaking the championship record.
Fellow Chinese swimmer Wang Xinyi finished seventh in the women's 200m backstroke. U.S. swimmers Teagan O'Dell and Jojo Ramey claimed the top two spots in 2:08.09 and 2:10.18 respectively, while Bella Grant of Australia secured third place.
Australia's Olivia Wunsch and Milla Jansen swept the top two spots in the women's 100 freestyle before joining Flynn Southam and Edward Sommerville to secure another gold medal for Australia in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay. They set a new junior world record of 3:24.29, finishing ahead of the United States and Canada. ■
