China swimmers collect 3 golds in Day 2 of Beijing FINA World Cup

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Xu Jiayu of China competes during the men's 50m backstroke final at the FINA Swimming World Cup 2018 in Beijing, China, Nov. 3, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

The second day of the FINA Swimming World Cup saw 13 different winners win golds in 13 individual events on Saturday.

Chinese swimmers had a fruitful day with Xu Jiayu bagging their second gold in the tournament and Team China triumphed in the mixed 4x50m freestyle relay.

The Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu of Hungary, who is on the top of the medal tally at the World Cup series this season, added another gold to her collection in the 400m individual medley, clocking 4:25.68, 11.34 seconds faster than the runner-up.

"I love to be in China. For me seeing the kids and the fans here is really amazing. In a way, I feel like they also inspire me to be faster, to swim in a lot of events for them," said Hosszu, who signed up for 14 events and has won three golds so far.

Being among the oldest swimmers, Hosszu said she enjoyed pushing herself to the limit.

"For me I like to be uncomfortable. I feel like that always makes me strong, always try to do more and better," the three-time Olympic champion added.

Xu Jiayu, the first Chinese man to become world champion in backstroke events in Budapest last year, beat Michael Andrew of the United States and Vladimir Morozov of Russia to snatch gold in men's 50m backstroke with a time of 22.70.

"It is the result of my continuous hard work," Xu said afterwards. "I have been training without vacations and that's why I improved my personal best record today."

Home favorite Wang Shun led from the beginning to the end in men's 200m individual medley to finish in 1:52.08, winning his first gold medal in the tournament.

"I expect to improve my personal best of 1:51.60 today and it's a pity I did not make it. I could feel the Japanese swimmer had closed the gap between us when I changed from breaststroke to freestyle and that's means I was not doing good enough in the breaststroke part," Wang said.

"But I did not feel too much pressure because I was confident that I could win the race," he added.

In other events, men's rankings leader Vladimir Morozov of Russia claimed his third gold in 100m freestyle in 45.66. Kykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine bested opponents in men's 1,500 freestyle with 14:29.88. Swedish triple Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom finished first in women's 50m butterfly, clocking 25.03. Femke Heemskerk of the Netherlands claimed gold in women's 200m freestyle in 1:52.22.

Beijing is the first leg of the last cluster of FINA Swimming World Cup 2018. The event will come to Tokyo next and wrap up in Singapore. 

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