BUDAPEST (Reuters) – American Torri Huske nearly broke the women’s 100m butterfly world record at the swimming world championships in Budapest on Sunday while Nicolo Martinenghi became the first Italian to win the 100 metre breaststroke gold.
Huske looked well set to break the world record in the final 50m but finished with a time of 55.64 seconds – just 0.16 seconds shy.
The 19-year-old finished half a second ahead of France’s Marie Wattel who took silver while China’s Zhang Yufei took the bronze.
“I’m so happy, this is an amazing field of women and I’m just very lucky to be here. I don’t know how to put this into words, but I just want to thank my coaches and family back home,” Huske said.
“It’s helped (my confidence) a little bit but I still have a lot of races to focus on.”
The medal was her second at the championships after helping the U.S. team win the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay on Saturday.
Martinenghi had won the bronze at the Olympic Games last year but this time the 22-year-old raced into the lead and was unassailable on the final stretch, winning by 0.36 seconds.
“It’s amazing, it’s my first world final and first gold medal at the worlds,” Martinenghi said.
Tokyo silver medallist Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands finished second while American Nic Fink was third, with only 0.03 seconds separating the two.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)
