Swimming roundup: China makes breakthroughs despite third finish in Kazan

Despite a third ranking on the medal tally, China showed strength and made breakthroughs in swimming at the Kazan world championships as the eight-day competition lowered it curtain here on Sunday.

China trailed the United States and Australia to rank third with five gold, one silver and seven bronze. The United States topped the medal table with eight gold, 10 silver and five bronze, however, this was the second worse result for US since 1998. Australia made improvement this time with seven gold, three silver and six bronze. Britain ranked fourth with five gold, one silver and three bronze.

"The results were better than we had expected," said Xu Qi, team leader of the Chinese team. "Our star swimmers produced good performances. Sun Yang won the 400m and 800m freestyle, and Ning Zetao claimed the first gold medal for China in the sprint freestyle as a world championships debutant."

"The young swimmers gained experiences. I am very happy to see them make 11 finals in total," Xu added.

No one had expected Chinese to take the men's 100m freestyle gold medal, especially by a world championship debutant. The 22-year-old Ning stunned the world on Thursday night with a historic win in the blue-ribbon men's 100m freestyle in 47.84 seconds.

Ning's victory strengthened China's power in the men's pool, the sprint race in particular. Olympic and world champion Sun Yang has already dominated distance races in freestyle.

"It's a huge breakthrough," said head coach Yao Zhengjie. "I am very happy to see Chinese male swimmers progressing in recent years."

Sun also made good performances at Kazan despite 1,500m final withdrawal.

The London Olympic champion won the men's 400m and 800m free, and took second in the 200m. He pulled out of Sunday's 1,500m final due to heart discomfort.

The 19-year-old Fu Yuanhui won the women's 50m backstroke gold and led the Chinese women to claim the 4x100m medley relay title.

Without butterfly Olympic champions Jiao Liuyang and Liu Zige, China took a bronze in the women's 200m fly with youngster Zhang Yufei. Veteran Lu Ying kept good form as she took two bronze in the 50m and 100m fly. Young swimmers Wang Shun, Xu Jiayu, Liu Xiang and Shi Jinglin all renewed their personal best.

"We can expect their performance at the Rio Games next year," said Xu. "USA didn't do well this time, but it doesn't they can't do well in Rio."

Olympic champion Ye Shiwen was in bad form and didn't win a medal at Kazan, but Xu kept optimistic on Ye.

"It's normal for Ye to have up and downs," he said. "She still has big potential. She did a good job at the Asian Games last year, and I think she can be in good state at Rio next year." Endi