USA Increases Medal Lead, South Africa Makes Up Ground on Day 5 of WUGs

2019 WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES/SUMMER UNIVERSIADE – SWIMMING

  • July 4th-9th, 2019
  • Napoli, Italy
  • LCM (50m)
  • Live Stream: Olympic Channel (in US), Rai Sport (in Italy)
  • Entry Lists & Live Results

If Universiade Records counted equally as much as gold medals, South Africa would have won the day on day five of the World University Games. Records aside, South Africa came away with two more gold medals.

First, in the 200 breaststroke, Tatjana Schoenmaker swam a 2:22.92 for gold over the USA’s Emily Escobedo and Japan’s Kanako Watanabe. Then, later in the session, Tayla Lovemore won the women’s 100 butterfly in 58.74, just edging Team USA’s Dakota Luther (58.82) and Germany’s Lisa Hoepink (58.87). On Friday, Lovemore won the women’s 50 fly, setting a new South African record in 26.25. Schoenmaker also won the 100 breast a couple days ago, delivering a new National Record in 1:06.32.

In the prelims of the men’s 50 breaststroke, Michael Houlie became the first WUGs competitor to ever go sub-27 in this competition. He followed that up with another record swim in the semifinals this evening, producing a 26.82 to take the top spot in finals by a massive half-second margin over Russia’s Kirill Prigoda and USA’s 100 breaststroke champion Ian Finnerty. Houlie will be the heavy favorite for the gold in tomorrow’s championship final, but until then, the South African team will have to wait for its next gold medal.

The United States won every silver medal available on day 5 of the competition. Nick Norman finished 2nd in the men’s 800 freestyle to capture the USA’s first medal of the day, just behind Anton Nikitin of Russia, who brought home Russia’s one and only medal on day 5. Emily Escobedo then nabbed 2nd in the 200 breast, while Zach Apple and Tate Jackson went 1-2 in the 100 freestyle, securing the Americans their only gold of the session. In the last championship final of the evening, Dakota Luther picked up silver in the 100 fly, just behind South Africa’s Tayla Lovemore.

Poland got on the board with a bronze medal in the 800 free, courtesy of Filip Zaborowski; Germany nabbed a bronze medal in the 100 fly thanks to Lisa Hoepink; and Brazil picked up its first bronze of the competition by way of Marco Ferreira‘s 48.57.

DAY 5 MEDAL TABLE

PLACE NATION GOLD SILVER BRONZE TOTAL RANK BY TOTAL
1 USA 11 8 5 24 1
2 South Africa 5 0 0 5 5
3 Russia 4 3 3 10 3
4 Japan 3 5 5 13 2
5 Great Britain 1 1 1 3 6
6 Australia 1 1 0 2 7 (tie)
7 Sweden 1 0 0 1 8 (tie)
8 Italy 0 3 5 8 4
9 Brazil 0 1 1 2 7 (tie)
10 (tie) France 0 1 0 1 8 (tie)
10 (tie) Germany 0 1 0 1 8 (tie)
12 (tie) Belarus 0 0 1 1 8 (tie)
12 (tie) Poland 0 0 1 1 8 (tie)
12 (tie) South Korea 0 0 1 1 8 (tie)
12 (tie) Taiwan 0 0 1 1 8 (tie)
Totals 26 24 24 74

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Wondering
4 years ago

U.S. 24
Australia 2

Running start to touch backstroke flags
4 years ago

USA tied with China. Both have 11 golds. Or, have NCAA score diving separately and confirm Cal swimming dynasty… Can’t have both.

Just one thing

There are so many things wrong with this comment it’s hard to point all of them out.

About Reid Carlson

Reid Carlson

Reid Carlson originally hails from Clay Center, Kansas, where he began swimming at age six.  At age 14 he began swimming club year-round and later with his high school team, making state all four years.  He was fortunate enough to draw the attention of Kalamazoo College where he went on to …

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