World Junior Championships, Day 3 Finals: Maximus Williamson Eyes Fourth Gold Medal
Maximus Williamson will claim his fourth gold of the World Junior Championships if the USA win the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay.
The 17-year-old has already claimed the 200IM title as well as two relay golds at the meet in Netanya, Israel.
Petar Mitsin will look to claim his second title when he goes up against Vlad Stancu in the 800 free, the pair having gone one-two at the European Juniors in Belgrade, Serbia, in July.
The women’s 100 free and 200 back plus the men’s 100 fly will also be decided.
All the action from the third day of competition:
Women’s 50m Butterfly Semifinals
Mizuki Hirai continued the form she’d shown in the prelims to book lane four for Thursday’s final in 26.37.
Alongside her will be Leah Shackley of the USA who clocked 26.43 with 200 fly gold medallist Lana Pudar through in fourth in 26.64.
Men’s 50m Freestyle Semifinals
Flynn Southam booked lane four as he seeks his second title following victory in the 200 free.
The Australian clocked 22.29 ahead of Nikoli Blackman of Trinidad and Tobago (22.33) with European junior champion Lorenzo Ballarati of Italy next through in 22.38.
Women’s 200m Backstroke
Teagan O’Dell led from start to finish to post an emphatic victory and lead home a USA 1-2.
O’Dell finished fourth in the 100m but she split 30.11/1:02.81 (32.70)/1:35.17 (32.36) before coming home in 32.92 for victory in 2:08.09, 0.63 outside Regan Smith’s CR of 2:07.45 from Indianapolis 2017.
Teammate Jojo Ramey won silver in 2:10.18 – 2.09 adrift – with Bella Grant of Australia third in 2:11.24.
Men’s 100m Butterfly
Casper Puggaard came from second at halfway to add the world junior title to the European equivalent.
The Dane was 0.10 adrift of Maro Maknic at the turn in 24.28 to 24.38 before a second 50 of 27.92 propelled him into the wall in 52.30.
Wang Xizhe was fifth at halfway but a 27.88 second length steered him through the field to second in 52.65, 0.03 ahead of Austria’s Lukas Edl (52.68).
