Russia dominates in Day 3 of 4th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, qualifies fastest in 4 of 6 events

Dubai (WAM): The Russian team has emerged as the one to beat as the action and excitement continued in the Hamdan Sports Complex in the Day 3 heats of the 4th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships yesterday. Russia qualified fastest in four of the six events this morning, as Championship records continued to fall. The first to claim a record was Svetlana Chimrova of Russia in the girls 50m butterfly. Chimrova had a convincing win in her heat, and qualified first for the final with 26.62 seconds. Stephanie Whan of Australia also took out her heat, beating the sensational Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania in the process and qualifying second with 26.80, ahead of Lucie Svecena of Czech Republic and Jemma Schlicht of Australia. World Champion breaststroker Meilutyte is taking the opportunity in these Championships to compete in a number of events she does not normally enter, so would be satisfied to qualify for the semi-final in fifth place. The next Russian to perform well was Grigory Tarasevich who took the first step in his quest to improve on his bronze in the 100m backstroke last night, by qualifying fastest for the boys 50m backstroke semi-finals. Tarasevich posted a 25.93, ahead of the 100m backstroke gold medallist Greece's Apostolos Christou's 25.98, setting up a tough semi-final tonight. Dylan Carter of Trinidad and Tobago qualified third and will be hoping to go one better in this event after missing a medal finishing 4th in the 100m backstroke. The girls 100m breaststroke should be a foregone conclusion with World and Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte in the field. Meilutyte took it fairly easy in the heat and qualified in second for the final in 1:08.62 behind Viktoriya Solcneva of Ukraine who finished in 1:08.38 in one of the two events not dominated by Russia this morning. Solcneva took the silver behind Meilutyte in the 50m breaststroke final last night and will be out to achieve the unthinkable and topple the World champion. In what is shaping up to be a great three way rivalry, Great Britain's Sophie Taylor who took bronze in the 100m qualified third for tonight's semi-final. The boys 50m freestyle saw the next Championships record fall as Australia's Luke Percy posted a 22.35 swim, only to have that bettered a matter of minutes later in the final heat by Russia's Evgeny Sedov with 22.13. 17 year old Sedov took 5 gold and 2 silver at the European Junior Championships last month and is favourite going into tonight's semi-final. The next Russian to post a best time was Daria Ustinova, who is on her way to the 100m/200m backstroke double after qualifying first in 2:11.07 for tonight's 200m final. Kathleen Baker of the US took silver behind Ustinova in the 100m final last night , and qualified third fastest for the final tonight behind countrywoman Kylie Stewart. One of the last events on this morning's program was the increasingly popular mixed relays. The 4x100m mixed freestyle relay really got the attention of the crowd, and again it was the US, Australia and Russia in that order being the fastest teams through to the finals tonight. They will be joined by Brazil, Germany, Poland, Canada and surprise packet Turkey in what promises to be one of the highlights of tonight's program. This will be Turkey's first appearance in a final at these Championships. Nearly 800 swimmers from 91 nations have gathered in Dubai to contest the Championships which is for the top juniors in the world, girls aged 14-17 and boys aged 15-18, making this the largest World Junior Swimming Championships since its inception in 2006. The Championships run from 26 - 31 August, with heats each day from 10am - 1.00pm, and semi-finals and finals each night from 6-8.30pm. – Emirates News Agency, WAM