Chinese swimmer Xin Xin won the first gold medal for China in open water swimming at the 18th FINA World Championships on Sunday in South Korea.
The 22-year-old finished first in one hour 54 minutes and 47.20 seconds in the women’s 10km open water swimming, becoming the first to grab a gold medal for China in the history of the swimming world championships.
Xin was just 0.90 second ahead of Haley Anderson of the United States who came in second on the third day of the worlds. Rachele Bruni of Italy came away with bronze in 1:54:49.90.
Xin’s title lifted the number of China’s gold medals at FINA to four.
Earlier, the Chinese divers swept the first three gold medals on offer as Lian Junjie/Si Yajie and Chen Yiwen took easy victories while Cao Yuan/Xie Siyi struggled to be crowned until the last dive here on Saturday.
Among the three events, only the men’s 3m springboard synchro was an Olympic event so far at the World Championships and evolved into the only hard battle in which three pairs took the lead in turns.
The 18th FINA World Championships Gwangju runs from July 12 to 28, attracting 15,000 people including officials and athletes from about 200 countries and regions.
