SINGAPORE: China’s Qin Haiyang celebrated “a miracle” second gold at the world championships in Singapore on Friday, on the eve of a blockbuster showdown between Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh.
Flying Dutchwoman Marrit Steenbergen stunned Mollie O’Callaghan to win the 100m freestyle, while Olympic champion Kate Douglass posted the second-fastest 200m breaststroke in history to win gold.
Roared on by a large number of screaming Chinese fans, world record holder Qin touched the wall in 2min 07.41sec in a nailbiter of a men’s 200m breaststroke final.
The 26-year-old won the 100m breaststroke earlier in the week but he celebrated his second victory as if it were his first.
He punched the air before standing with his arms spread wide to soak up the acclaim of the Chinese fans.
Japan’s Ippei Watanabe (2:07.70) won silver and Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands (2:07.73) took bronze.
With Olympic champion Leon Marchand skipping the race, Qin started in lane eight after qualifying slowest from the semi-finals.
Qin, who swept the 50, 100 and 200 breaststroke titles at the 2023 championships in Fukuoka, looked a spent force coming into the home stretch but got his second wind to power past the competition on the outside.
“Amazing,” said Qin. “Have you heard of the lane eight miracle? I did not know if I was second or third, I just heard ‘whoo’, so I knew I had won.”
Qin is returning to form after flopping at last year’s Paris Olympics, where he did not even make the final of the 200m breaststroke.
His preparations for the Games were thrown into turmoil when he was implicated in a major doping scandal months before the Games.
A report named Qin among 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for a prescription heart drug ahead of the pandemic-delayed 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
They were not sanctioned after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted the argument of Chinese authorities that the positive tests were caused by contaminated food.
Steenbergen stuns O’Callaghan
O’Callaghan has already won three gold medals this week, taking her overall tally to 11, and one more would see her move past Ian Thorpe to become the most successful Australian swimmer at the world championships.
However, she found herself in fourth place after the first 50 in Friday’s final and was unable to claw back the deficit as Steenbergen touched first in 52.55 seconds, 0.12 ahead of O’Callaghan with American Torri Huske (52.89) third.
Steenbergen won world championship gold in the event in Doha last year in a field missing several big names saving themselves for the Paris Olympics. Her victory made her the first swimmer to successfully defend their title from last year’s world championships.
“In Doha I was like, this is crazy to win, but in this field I don’t know what to feel, I’m just so happy,” said the 25-year-old.
O’Callaghan, who won gold in the 200 on Wednesday, said her exertions from Thursday’s programme affected her. In addition to the 100 semi-finals, she also anchored Australia home to win gold in the 4×200 relay.
“I’m tired, I’m not going to lie,” she told Australian broadcaster Nine Network. “None of the girls did what I did last night. I’m happy to walk away with a medal.
“I’m pretty happy, and it just shows the strength that I have and the work I can do in the future knowing that I’ve barely done any training for this.”
South African Pieter Coetze was also denied a double in the men’s backstroke as reigning Olympic and 2023 world champion Hubert Kos powered to victory in the 200, posting a time of 1:53.19.
Both swimmers were on world record pace at the 150 metres mark before the Hungarian inched ahead and touched the wall first by 0.17 seconds. Frenchman Yohann Ndoye-Brouard took bronze.
Douglass dominates
American Douglass was absolutely dominant in the women’s 200 breaststroke, swimming a scorching 2:18.50 to record the second-fastest time in the event.
The 23-year-old was relentless, surging further and further ahead of the field to win gold by a body length ahead of Russian Evgeniia Chikunova, the world record holder who is competing as a neutral athlete. South African Kaylene Corbett was third.
Douglass credited Chikunova for pushing her to a personal best, saying: “I was really excited to race her tonight.
“Honestly, if I wasn’t racing her, I don’t know if I would have gone a 2:18. I think that really helped push me to be my best.”
Douglass was afforded barely any time to recover from her explosive effort, returning to the pool just 15 minutes later for the 50 butterfly semi-finals.
The turnaround proved too quick for the American, however, as she finished 14th fastest and failed to make Saturday’s final, where compatriot Gretchen Walsh will be favourite to add the 200 title to the 100 gold she won on Monday.
In the final event of the evening, Duncan Scott put in a crucial shift in the anchor leg of the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay as Olympic and 2023 world champions Britain won gold in a time of 6:59.84.
China were second and Australia took bronze, while France were only sixth after Marchand was left with too much to do in the final leg.
Australian Kaylee McKeown remains on track for a double in the women’s backstroke, posting the fourth-fastest time in the 200 semi-finals, just ahead of rival Regan Smith.
Ledecky V McIntosh
On Saturday, McIntosh and Ledecky will go head-to-head in the 800m freestyle final, billed as the race of the competition.
American great Ledecky, 28, is the undisputed master in the event, having won the title at the last four Olympics and updating her own world record in May this year.
But McIntosh, 10 years Ledecky’s junior, is in the mood to snatch her crown as she looks to join Michael Phelps as the only swimmer to win five individual titles at a single world championships.
The 18-year-old Canadian has already bagged three golds from three events in Singapore and she clocked the third-fastest 800m freestyle time ever in June.
Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2025
