Australia’s Iona Anderson powered to silver in the women’s 100m backstroke at the World Aquatics Championships, finishing second in a teenage rampage led by America’s Claire Curzan.
The 18-year-old West Australian was joined in the final on Tuesday in Doha by Queenslander Jaclyn Barclay – a year her junior at just 17.
Anderson set a new PB, touching in at 59.12 behind a dominant Curzan (58.29), who is only 19 herself.
Meanwhile, Barclay showed Australia’s backstroke strength in the absence of reigning champion Kaylee McKeown. Barclay was just 0.10 off the podium, swimming a strong 59.28 to finish fractionally behind Ingrid Wilm, of Canada.
With Katie Ledecky opting to stay at home, Simona Quadarella of Italy romped to another gold medal in the women’s 1500m freestyle.
Quadarella began to pull away from the field around the 500m mark and finished nearly a half-lap ahead in 15min 46.99sec.
Li Bingjie of China took the silver in 15:56.62, just ahead of bronze medallist Isabel Gose of Germany. Australia’s Maddy Gough finished in seventh place, in 16:16.85.
Ledecky has won five of the last six world titles in the 1500 but decided to skip these COVID-delayed worlds to focus on this year’s Paris Olympics.
In the opening race of the night at Doha’s Aspire Dome, Hwang Sun-woo gave South Korea their second gold of the championships in the men’s 200 freestyle.
Hwang pushed the pace through the first two laps before American Luke Hobson led with 50 metres to go.
Hwang powered back to the front on the final lap, holding off Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys to win in 1:44.75. The bronze went to Hobson.
Australia’s Elijah Winnngton finished seventh in a time of 1:46.20.
Hwang, 20, said: “I don’t have a long-course gold medal,” Hwang said. “But I did it today, so I’m very happy.”
Hunter Armstrong bounced back from a mix-up in the semi-finals, where he swam in the wrong lane, to win the men’s 100 back in 52.68.
Armstrong held off Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez, his training partner, who claimed silver. The bronze went to Greece’s Apostolos Christou.
Tang Qianting won the women’s 100 breaststroke in 1:05.92 to give China a second gold of the championships.
The silver went to Tes Schouten of the Netherlands and Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey grabbed a surprise bronze.