Dubai: Ruta Meilutyte and Mackenzie Horton asserted their individual prowess but could not prevent the US from making a clean sweep of team honours at the end of the 4th Fina World Junior Swimming Championships that concluded at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Saturday.
Lithuania’s Meilutyte came out the best female swimmer with a total haul of six medals including four gold and a silver while Australian Horton made everyone stand up and take notice when he ended with a personal tally of six medals, including five gold and a silver.
Horton’s final dominant performance came on the final night of the six-day meet when he became the only one male swimmer to register a sub-15 minute time in the 1,500-metre freestyle. His time of 14:56.60 not only eclipsed the old championship mark but also had the Australian finish nearly 12 seconds ahead of silver medallist Jan Micka of the Czech Republic.
A total 47 new championship records were broken and of these only 34 stand as the remaining were eclipsed during the heats and subsequently bettered.
Though pleased with the gold, Horton was not too satisfied with his time in the final event.
“I was trying for below 14:50 and that would have been good,” Horton said as he set his sights on the Commonwealth Games trials to be held in April next year. “But I’ve enjoyed this event and I’ve gained a lot of experience and got more confident, particularly for the shorter events.”
Meilutyte too ended with a flourish when the 16-year-old Lithuanian world and Olympic champion took the gold in the 50m freestyle in a time of 25.10 seconds to ensure her country ended fourth in the overall medal standings.
“Dubai has been an amazing experience for me and I am very, very pleased with what I have achieved here,” she said.
Meliutyte participated in nine events in Dubai and walked away with podium finishes in six of these. All this, according to her, was part of her evolution as an all-round swimmer.
“I have definitely seen myself evolving,” she said as she targeted a well-deserved break from swimming after a gruelling season. “It’s been hard trying to be at your best in all events, but I’ve proved to myself that I am capable of winning in other races as well. It has been a busy week and I am really feeling good and happy with what I have achieved here.”
However, ending with the overall team honours was the US squad as they picked up the best female team, best male team and best team overall titles. They finished the championships with 29 medals of which nine were gold, eight were silver and one bronze, leaving Russia in second overall with nine gold, eight silver and nine bronze for a total of 26 while Australia took third with 10 gold, six silver and two bronze.
The fifth edition of the Fina World Junior Swimming Championships will be held in Singapore in 2015.
