Yu Zidi: Rivals laud ‘phenomenally talented' 12-year-old swim sensation
China's Yu finished fourth in the women's 200m medley in Singapore in her first world championships final, as Canadian star Summer McIntosh took gold.
Yu finished the
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Newsroom
an hour ago
- Newsroom
A tough week in Singapore
Swimming New Zealand bosses have some soul searching to do after New Zealand suffered its worst result at a world championship for seven years. This is despite entering two world champions for the first time, both who have had a significant increase in tailored support funding from High Performance Sport New Zealand this year. It was the first time since 2017, and the second since 2011, that no one placed higher than fifth. The eight-day championships in Singapore ended last night, with 400m freestyle world champion Erika Fairweather hoping to be the first Aquablack to medal at her third successive world championship. That would be a huge achievement, given only 10 had placed in the top 16 in the past decade at this level and of females, only Olympians Caitlin Deans and Eve Thomas also did so this year. Fairweather is also New Zealand's first ever aquatics world champion and won three medals at last year's championship. Her world title defence on the first day was over before it began. She missed the final on July 27 after a brutal disqualification for a slight backwards movement on the starting blocks, between the 'take your marks' command and the starting signal. No movement there is permitted. She is just the second woman to be disqualified in the event in world championship history, and by far the most high profile. 'Not everything went entirely to plan but that's part of it,' Fairweather says. Things didn't go to plan for Swimming New Zealand either, as Hazel Ouwehand, who would have been New Zealand's highest seeded swimmer at the world championships, decided to bypass Singapore. Her 50m butterfly lifetime best would have been enough to medal. While Fairweather's disqualification was unfortunate, she could only go on to manage a best placing of sixth. She comfortably won her heat in the 200m freestyle ahead of Australian Olympic champion Molly O'Callaghan and was just 0.09 seconds shy of her lifetime best in her semi-final but could not match that in the final. She was second last year. Yet Fairweather was fortunate to swim the final as the top three, American Katie Ledecky, Lani Pallister from Australia and Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh, weren't competing in that event, last year's winner Siobhan Haughey withdrew due to injury, and Australian Ariarne Titmus took a break. Caitlin Deans was the only Olympian to swim a lifetime best at both the 2025 national championships and again at the world championships. She placed 13th in the 1500m freestyle ahead of Eve Thomas, who was 16th. 'I was really happy with my performance. It's always a lot of fun racing on the big stage, and it's just made me more excited to get stuck into the 800m,' Deans said after her 1500m event. In the 800m freestyle, Deans got stuck in and went one better, placing 10th, her best world championship effort. It was a lifetime best and just over a second short of making a final in an event she did not qualify for last year. 'I'm absolutely rapt. To be so close to making the final is frustrating, but it's just more motivation for the upcoming season,' she says. Fairweather also competed in the 800m freestyle and was optimistic of a good placing. As a result, Swimming New Zealand did not enter a women's 4x200m freestyle relay team scheduled for the previous day, despite the relay team making a final at Paris for the first Olympics ever, and under the same circumstances. This year, Fairweather placed seventh in the 800m; the top three broke the championship record. American Katie Ledecky won her seventh straight title in a titanic race with Australia's Lani Pallister. Laura Quilter competed at her first worlds, after last competing internationally at the 2012 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. She set a personal best in the 50m freestyle, aged 33, after being just shy of one in the 50m butterfly. 'To end my world champs with a lifetime best is such an awesome feeling,' she says. 'I just went out to race. No thinking, just focused on keeping a smile on my face through marshalling to quell the nerves and remind myself how special it is to represent New Zealand again.' Also in the 50m butterfly event was teenager Zoe Pedersen on her Aquablack debut, At 18, she is young enough to qualify for the World Juniors to be held next month. This month's championships were a learning experience for her. She placed 24= in a time that would have medalled at the last World Juniors. 'I'm super happy with what I've been able to take away from this team and my swim, watching some of our best swimmers on the world stage has been an incredible opportunity.' Pedersen says. 'I'm excited to be able to implement the things I've learned from this trip at the World Juniors and have the opportunity to support my junior teammates in a couple of weeks.' While Fairweather was unable to defend her world title due to the disqualification, on the men's side, neither was Lewis Clareburt, in the 400m individual medley. He missed the final, placing 10th. However, he got his highest ever world championship placing in the 200m individual medley, fifth, breaking his New Zealand record set at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Otago Daily Times
9 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Fairweather delivers strong time as Ledecky powers to win
Erika Fairweather held her own in one of the most highly anticipated races at the world championships in Singapore on Saturday. The former Dunedin swimmer finished seventh in a stacked field in the women's 800m freestyle, clocking a time of 8min 20.79sec. It was her second-fastest time across the distance in her career and wrapped up her world championships, having made two finals. Fairweather made a good start and was fourth at the first turn before battling for sixth with China's Bingjie Li for the first half of the race. The 21-year-old sat in seventh for the final 100m and pushed hard to come home with a good time. United States great Katie Ledecky reminded everyone why she is the long-distance queen. Ledecky had a good test against Australian Lani Pallister and Canadian Summer McIntosh for much of the race. She lifted the pace across the final 100m creating a gap between her competitors and stormed home in 8min 05.62sec to set a championship record. Ledecky, 28, remains undefeated in the distance at the championships, winning a remarkable seventh title in Singapore. Pallister boosted home for silver in an Oceania record time of 8min 05.98sec and McIntosh won bronze in 8min 07.29sec, in what has already been dubbed the greatest race over the distance. "That's pretty incredible, three of us going under 8:10," Ledecky said. "I'm just really happy I could put that together. "I don't think I have anything to lose at this point of my career "Everyone in that heat is the next generation of swimmers coming up — just proud to be a part of it." On Friday, Dunedin swimmer Caitlin Deans finished 10th in the 800m freestyle with a personal best of 8min 28.72sec "I'm absolutely wrapped to come away with a PB," Deans said. "To be so close to making the final is frustrating, but it's just more motivation for the upcoming season." Kiwi Finn Harland qualified for the men's 50m backstroke semifinal after finishing with a personal best of 24.76sec in his debut world championships on Saturday. The 19-year-old clocked 25.02sec in the semifinal to finish 16th overall. Andrew Jeffcoat finished 27th with 25.09sec in the 50m backstroke. Laura Quilter finished 22nd overall in the women's 50m freestyle with a personal best of 25.08sec. Defending men's 400m IM champion Lewis Clareburt finished 10th overall in the event after clocking 4min 13.89sec in his heat yesterday. Japan's Tomoyuki Matsushita was the top seed heading into last night's final with 4min 10.39sec.
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
‘Son of Queenstown' remembered
The late Bruce Grant. PHOTO: SUPPLIED If Queenstown's the world's adventure capital, no-one epitomised that better than Bruce Grant. That even applied to the tragic end of his life — succumbing to "the mother of storms" after becoming the first Kiwi to summit the world's second highest mountain, K2, without oxygen. Only 31, this 'son of Queenstown' — as he's described on a plaque in the Gardens — had already packed in a lifetime of adventures. Born in the Sydney St maternity home his family once lived opposite, Bruce's mum Ros, who's 93, was a teacher and his dad, the late John, a builder. The youngest of four siblings, he started skiing earlier than the others — "he sort of got dragged along", sister Christine, one year his elder, says. He attended primary and secondary school on Ballarat St, finishing at the latter's new Fryer St campus. Christine says then-skifield owner Mount Cook provided schools with ex-rental gear which Bruce started with. The pair would later miss a lot of school as they ascended the ranks to national ski team selection. New Zealand downhill champ for five years, he and Christine skied that discipline, under the influence of a Canadian coach, at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. Bruce finished 31st and was also chosen for the '88 Calgary Olympics, but an injured leg didn't recover in time for him to compete. He got into parapenting soon after it was introduced to Queenstown, first flying solo before becoming a commercial tandem pilot for eight years. After summiting many mountains, including Mt Cook seven times, he'd often ski or parapente off them, sometimes for films he starred in. One was The Leading Edge, for which Queenstowner Mathurin Molgat hired him after watching him ski The Remarkables. "He was an exceptional athlete, and he never said 'no'. "If you said, 'you want to do this, Bruce?' it didn't matter what the adventure was, he was in it." They even tried, before crashing, to mountain bike down The Remarkables' 'Elevator' chute. Mathurin found him the strong, silent type. "We drove up to Mt Cook and I think there were about four words exchanged. "He was a very content, self-contained character." Christine says he also meditated — "he was contemplative". A sculpture in his memory in the Queenstown Gardens. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER In terms of extreme adventure, skiing down Austria's long and difficult Hahnenkamm run put him in elite company. His main mountaineering buddy was then-Queenstowner Kim Logan, who marvelled at some of his amazing Fiordland climbs. Although about 10 years his senior and more experienced, he says Bruce was mentally and physically the better mountaineer. "His safety margin was higher than mine." The pair were among rescuers who saved the life of a German backpacker on the Routeburn Track in extreme conditions, winning them all Royal Humane Society bravery medals. Kim recalls the police afterwards shouted them breakfast at Queenstown's then Gourmet Express and they got "absolutely smashed" on Irish coffees — "forget about the coffee, just bring us the Irish [whiskey]". The pair's '95 assault on K2, considered the world's most dangerous mountain, was preceded by a major community fundraising effort. Kim says he turned around just after Camp 4 —"it was my own condition and the weather" — and a few hours later expedition leader Peter Hillary did, too. Bruce and five others subsequently reached the summit, but all perished soon after when "the mother of storms" blew through, Kim says. Christine's sure if they'd had an inkling they wouldn't have summitted. "There was a very strong wind which was unforeseen really, in my understanding it came from the bottom up." Ironically, at the same time his brother Andrew, nicknamed 'Buzz', was experiencing a huge storm after summiting Mt Cook. When Kim returned to Queenstown, a memorial service was held in the Anglican church, after which hardy souls ventured in very wild weather to the Gardens where Christine's husband Dan Kelly's sculpture of a hand grasping an ice axe, in Bruce's memory, had been installed that day. At the time, Christine told Mountain Scene: "Bruce achieved a majority of his goals, there's not many people who could ski off Mt Cook, let alone fly. "He was aware of the fragility of human life in nature, he understood the reputation of K2 fully. "He achieved this goal, who knows what he would have achieved next?" Bruce Grant won every Dash for Cash he entered. Thirty years after his death, Sunday's Dash for Cash on Queenstown's Coronet Peak — a fundraiser for the Bruce Grant Youth Trust — is being held in his honour, from 2pm.
