ABU DHABI, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Two Championships records fell on the third competition day at the FINA short-course swimming World Championships as Siobhan Bernadette Haughey and Li Bingjie both triumphed on Saturday.
Haughey, who smashed the world record to win the women's 200m freestyle on Thursday, brought her good form to the 100m freestyle race on Saturday.
The 24-year-old swimmer from Hong Kong, China touched the wall first in 50.98 seconds, slicing 0.16 seconds off the Championships record set by Ranomi Kromowidjojo in Hangzhou three years ago.
Swede veteran Sarah Sjostrom was 0.33 second behind Haughey to finish second while American Abbey Weitzeil took the bronze medal in 51.64 seconds.
"This is my first-ever short-course World Championships and to get two gold medals, that's amazing," said Haughey who grabbed two silver medals in the 100m and 200m freestyle events at the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer. "I feel really good how everything is going so far."
Long-distance specialist Li Bingjie also made a splash by winning the women's 800m freestyle with a new tournament record of 8:02.90. The previous Championships record of 8:03.41 was set by Spaniard Mireia Belmonte in 2014.
"I have thought about winning the event," said the 19-year-old Chinese, "The result is event better than I have expected. "
Li has set her goal for the Asian Games to be held next year in Hangzhou, China. "I hope I could make breakthrough there and I will try to win as many as golds. "
In the men's 100m butterfly race, Italian Matteo Rivolta led the eight finalists in 48.87 seconds. The 30-year-old believed that winning a gold at his age was special.
"This was my first ever final at short course World Championships, and the first at any worlds since Barcelona 2013," revealed Rivolta. Enditem
