Swimming-Backstroke queen McKeown pulls off another double
Once again it was American Regan Smith looking to take down McKeown, only to be reeled in on the last lap as the Australian dominator clocked 2:03.33, the third fastest swim of all time.
It was nearly a second better than Smith (2:04.29), who had taken silver behind McKeown in the 100 and 200 at the Paris Olympics and was runner-up to her again in the 100 in Singapore.
Just like in Paris, McKeown's win came straight after compatriot Cameron McEvoy stormed to his second 50 freestyle title in 21.14 seconds, becoming the oldest Australian swimming world champion at the age of 31.
Fastest off the blocks, McEvoy once again denied Ben Proud (21.26) gold, having beaten the Briton to the Olympic title by a fingertip in Paris exactly a year ago.
A new dad since Paris, McEvoy thanked his wife Maddi and gave a shout-out to his baby boy Hartley.
"It's a very different life," he said.
"I've got to navigate it, I'll figure it out. But it's cool to have that at home and still be here doing what I love."
Gretchen Walsh kept the U.S. team medal haul ticking upwards with a dominant victory in the 50 butterfly, adding to her 100 title in Singapore.
Touching the wall in 24.83 seconds, Walsh was nearly half a second better than runner-up Alex Perkins, who set an Australian record of 25.31.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Recharged and revitalised — Nikhat Zareen 2.0
'Hyderabad is known for two things: the delicious biryani and its very own boxing ki rani.' Nikhat Zareen's wit, which is as sharp as her punches, was in full flow at an event in Hyderabad recently when she one-upped the emcee with a quick lesson in how to work on his introductions. And yet, in that quip, was also an indication of how Nikhat views herself and a gentle reminder to everyone that her self-confidence, which had taken a beating a year ago in Paris, has been rebuilt. Last year, having exited the Paris Olympics much earlier than expected, Nikhat was understandably distraught. Time has passed and this Nikhat is wiser and kinder to herself. 'There are a lot of things that have happened in the past. I don't want to focus on negatives. I just want to focus on the positive things that I have learned from Paris. It was a memorable competition for me. Not everyone gets the chance to represent India at the Olympics. I count myself lucky that at least I had the opportunity to go to the Olympics,' she said in a chat with The Hindu. Not written in the stars If the Paris Olympics taught Nikhat anything, it is that there are many more factors beyond hard work and self-belief that contribute to clinching an Olympic medal. 'Paris was my first experience at the Olympics. I used to hear a lot about the Olympics from my seniors, about how it is not an easy event, how winning other competitions is easier. It's not easy because once you go there, there are a lot of expectations from you and a lot of pressure from everyone,' she said. 'But when I went to the Olympics, what I experienced is that it's not just about working hard and having that belief in you that you can win medals. Sometimes it's also about destiny, it's also about luck. Sometimes that also matters a lot in your journey.' When she landed in the French capital, Nikhat had her eyes on two boxers: China's Wu Yu and Turkey's Buse Naz Cakiroglu. While she was far from afraid of facing them, she also did not want to meet either until the very end. Fate, however, had other plans. A series of unfortunate events 'My only hope was that these two boxers should not face me in the initial rounds and that they should face me in the semifinals or the final. Unfortunately, I faced one of them, the Chinese girl, in the early rounds. It was bad luck,' she said, recalling her defeat to the then reigning Asian Games champion. That was not the only thing that went wrong for her there. 'That bout was in the morning at 11 o'clock. There was no time for recovery, and we also had no air conditioning in Paris. If you take everything, it was quite clear that it (succeeding there) was not written in my destiny,' Nikhat brushed off with a laugh. Her otherwise bindaas and steely persona dropped and she admitted, not for the first time, that she let herself go after the Paris Olympics. 'As soon as I came back from Paris, I ate everything at home. I ate everything that I do not usually eat. I gained 7 kgs as soon as I came back, within one month. I know that's very unhealthy, but what can I do? That time, my mindset was like that. I didn't care about anything. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I didn't want to go anywhere,' she explained. She was coaxed out of this rut first by Bella, the golden retriever she and her sister adopted, and then by a trip away from home, where she could recharge her spirits away from the cacophony of daily life. 'I sat and thought that this was not going to help me. It would only spoil me. I needed to get out of that zone. I do not want to overthink and stay in the shadow of disappointment. I didn't want to be in that disappointment phase. I want to move on and come back stronger. I'm in that phase of life. So I decided to go on a trip to Kashmir, which really helped me to come back.' 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Nikhat also credited Sunny, a Sports Authority of India coach, with whom she began working this year, for helping her get back on course. 'I spoke to the federation and TOPS about needing a coach and finally decided to work under Sunny. I was training in ASI Pune for five months under him, and he has helped me regain my fitness levels. He has played a major role after the Paris Olympics in helping me get back into the national team.' Present perfect The 29-year-old is just an Olympics old but has learnt the hard lesson of compartmentalising the intensity of the ring. Living in the present, she admits, is as imperative to her success in the ring as it is to her peace outside it. 'I know what I want in my life. At the same time, I just don't want to be blindly focused on that because when you don't get that, then you're totally shattered. That is what happened in Paris. Every time in my mind, there was only the thought of winning a medal. I left everything for it. I didn't eat junk food for so long. I didn't focus on eating sweets because I followed a strict diet. But what happened in Paris? I got broken. Literally broken. I'm pushing myself every day, telling myself that whatever has happened in the past is in the past. Let's see what the future holds for me. Paris has taught me to focus on the present. I don't care what the future holds for me, what it brings in my life.' The two big events on this year's calendar are the World Boxing Championships and the Boxing World Cup, while the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is already on the back of everyone's minds. 'I just don't want to put pressure on myself like, 'Oh, what will happen in the World Championship? What will happen in LA?' No, I just want to live in the present and give my 100% in training and just enjoy my workouts, enjoy the game. I don't want to ruin my present thinking about the future. I just want to enjoy my training, enjoy my life. Nikhat is too much of a free spirit to allow room for regret and realises that finding joy in life need not be on pause just to accommodate sporting excellence. 'Being an athlete, you have to be focused and disciplined. But at the same time, I have my life also. I know that once I leave boxing, when I look back, I'll regret that didn't do this and that. At the same time, I also want to live to the fullest. I want to do everything. I want to win a medal, I want to work hard, and I want to enjoy life. Because you only live once.' Nikhat has now made it to the Indian team heading to Liverpool, England, for the World Boxing Championships in September, where she will be in action on the international stage for the first time since the Paris Olympics. 'I'm working hard again. I am seeing this as the start of my Olympic cycle. So I'll keep pushing myself. This is my first competition after the Paris Olympics, and I'll have butterflies in my stomach when I go there. 'But once I enter the ring, my mind will be set only on winning that match and the competition.' Nikhat forced her way onto the scene as a teenager, taking a circuitous route to the top, via stardom at the sub-junior nationals and Youth World Championships and ostracism for daring to challenge the legendary Mary Kom. She remained undeterred then and is even more resolute now. Amidst all the doubters and critics, she cuts a very confident figure, like a lone show of human will in the path of history. 'I'm still that Nikhat Zareen who has that hunger to achieve and make the country proud. 'I'm happy that I'm finally back in the national team. Now the focus is on winning the medal.'
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
More female superstars in India now but they should know how to represent themselves: Sania Mirza
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza on Wednesday said there are more female sports superstars in the country now apart from cricket but the onus is also on these women to define how they want to represent themselves. Sania said from the time she started playing nearly 32 years ago on tennis courts made of 'cow dung' and taking tetanus injections for precautions, the country has had several female superstars but they need to stay true to their characters. 'From having the only female superstar that I had from India was PT Usha and that was somebody we just heard of, we never saw because there was no social media, no media or there was no coverage,' she said on a panel discussion named 'The Sports Women' by Capri Sports. 'To today, when we go to the Olympics or outside of probably three or four male cricketers, the biggest superstars from this country in sport are female athletes and that says a lot over the last 50 years,' she added. Sania said the female players in the country across sports need to emphasise on playing for themselves and represent their character and not how others want them to be. 'Are we living in a man's world? The answer is yes. Are we living in a man's world when it comes to sport? The answer is yes. Are we living in a man's world or are we living in a cricket's world when it comes to this country? The answer is yes,' Sania said. 'As female representation, the onus is also on us how we represent ourselves, how we are actually showing the world.' 'We like world beaters in this part of the world, but we don't want them to act like world beaters. We still want them to act like they are bichare (poor).' 'So if you act like a world beater, they're like, 'they have attitude and they're arrogant'. But if then you are acting like, oh, you're a bichare (poor), then they say, 'you're a good girl' or whatever. But then they (also) say, 'oh, you don't have killer instincts'. So there's no winning in that,' she added. The former women's doubles world No 1 added, 'You don't do anything for other people, you do it for yourself. I don't actually care how other people represent me, I care how I represent myself.' India's two-time Olympic medal winner PV Sindhu added that if female athletes start thinking about others' opinions, it can 'break' a player. 'You don't have to actually bother or feel bad about what they (social media) think, but it's what you think and what matters is how you are feeling at the end of the day,' Sindhu said. 'If you actually think about what others are thinking, that will really take you somewhere you can't even imagine, because it breaks you and that's where the mental health (issues) start and you actually go into a circle where you don't know what's going on,' she added. Sindhu said while the dynamics have changed a lot for women in sports, there still has to be a lot of work done at the grassroots levels from both the government and the private sector. 'There's been a lot of change. Initially there was not much recognition. But I think now there's a lot more. Apart from that, I feel there needs to be a lot of support from the sponsors,' she said. 'I think that can increase where they actually support from the grassroots levels and that's very important, not just the elite athletes, but from the grassroots levels. 'Because when you're an elite and when you're doing well, when you're at the top, everything is going to be fine.' Sindhu won a silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics and then bagged a bronze in the 2021 Tokyo Games. She added, 'To recognise those young athletes from the grassroots levels is very important and to prove them and also make sure that they're going in the right way and guide them in the right way, that needs to improve a lot more.'
New Indian Express
an hour ago
- New Indian Express
Turning it Pope's way: Aussie leggie keen on continuing good run
Though he played a pivotal part in leading his team to the final, Pope sat out in the final, considering the pitch conditions at the Karen Rolton Oval then. "The wicket didn't really spin a lot. Credit to our squad, we had got some very good fast bowlers. They decided to go with the fast bowlers on that day. All I wanted was that to be the right decision and we won the game," he said. He further explained his season where South Australia won both the Shield and the One-Day Cup. "At the start of the year we said the squad's going to win the Sheffield Shield, not just the 11 players. Just to be even named in that squad, that's a huge achievement for me personally. (With regards to what he did) I tried to improve my stock ball trying to make my leg-break an effective ball to get wickets. That probably was not the easiest thing. It took quite a while for me to get to a stage where I feel like on Australian wickets that I am spinning the ball away from the bat and getting a bit of shape in the air and bounce off the wicket. That's quite a small adjustment but quite a hard one to make. I spent a lot of time doing that," he said. Listening to India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja talk on spin bowling, Pope then switched his aim before his delivery. "If I could take one thing away from what he says, it is just hitting the stumps as many times as possible. He is one of the best in the world. I think that's probably been one of the things that I've been focussing on in all formats of cricket for the last 12 months," he added.
