KAZAN, Russia – The medal haul for Cal swimmers at the FINA World Championships moved into double digits with Golden Bears collecting six medals Saturday. With one day of racing remaining, Cal’s total now stands at 15 with six gold, six silver and three bronze.
On the Bears’ most productive day of the meet, Nathan Adrian, Missy Franklin and Abbey Weitzeil earned gold in the mixed 4x100-meter relay, which set a world record in the final with a time of 3:23.05. Silver medals went to Adrian in the men’s 50 free, Franklin in the women’s 200 backstroke and Lauren Boyle in the women’s 800 free.
In the relay, Adrian handled the second leg and brought the Americans up from fifth place to second with a split of 47.29, nearly a half-second faster than anyone else in the final. When Franklin entered the water for the anchor leg, the U.S. was still in second place. She covered her 100-meter distance in 53.31, passing the Russians, who were in front but ended in fourth, and holding off the Netherlands for the gold by 0.05 seconds. Weitzeil, a Cal signee, also picked up a gold medal for her role in the qualifying heats when she swam anchor for the U.S. team.
“It was really fun,” Adrian said. “We didn’t have a great vantage point, so I had to keep looking up at the board. Missy did not have the lead until the last meter of that race, so it was really exciting.”
In the men’s 50 free, Adrian came in second to France’s Florent Manaudou, with a time of 21.52. Adrian set an American record in the event during his semifinal race Friday when he touched in 21.37.
“Sometimes your 50’s clicking, and sometimes your 100’s clicking, and I’m thankful that I had a spot to do both (this week),” Adrian said. “If I had only swum the 100, I would have walked away disappointed. Not to say that I’m not, but it’s nice to come back and get a medal.“
Franklin finished her 200 back in 2:06.34, just behind the 2:05.81 posted by Australia’s Emily Seebohm. Franklin has five medals at the meet (also 800 free relay gold; 400 free relay bronze; 200 free bronze) to raise her career World Championships total to 16.
“It’s hard to lose,” Franklin said. “This is probably one of the hardest races to get second in, just because I love it so much. But I’m honestly really happy with that. I fought my heart out, and I went out after it, and I swam it the way Missy Franklin swims the 200 backstroke. I’m just not there at the end yet, and that’s all right. But I was really happy with it. It was a great race, and I’m happy with that time. It was way better than last summer, so I still gain a lot of confidence in that.”
Boyle, representing New Zealand, picked up her second silver medal of the meet when she finished second behind American Katie Ladecky in the 800 free. Boyle, who also earned silver in the 1500 free, set an Oceanic record with her time of 8:17.65.
Two other Bears also competed in finals Saturday but just missed out on the medal stand. Junior Farida Osman of Egypt lowered her own African record in the women’s 50 butterfly to 25.78 as she finished fifth in her race, while recent grad Tom Shields placed fourth in the men’s 100 fly in 51.06.
In addition, Osman tied for 19th in the women’s 50 free heats and alum Guy Barnea (Israel) was 18th in the men’s 50 backstroke qualifying in 25.31.
