What captivates most sports fans during international events like the FISU World University Games are the feelings generated by unexpected heroes.
The underdogs. The Davids. The Rockys.
On Day 1 of swimming in Chengdu, on Tuesday, it was the Polish men’s 4x100m freestyle relay which provided the ‘Miracle on Ice’ moment thanks to a winning time of 3:14.60.
What a comeback the four young men from Katowice offered spectators at the Dong’an Lake Sports Park Aquatic Centre.
The Young Guardians, as they call themselves, were not shining so much in the morning as they barely qualified for the final with the sixth best time overall.
Seconds before the final, not a soul in the audience would have bet on them. Especially not the roaring Chinese fans, still hungry for home success despite one gold and three FISU Games records earlier in the evening.
“We have not come here for traveling, but for winning,” assured Kamil Sieradzki, the first Polish swimmer to hit the water.
The Katowice Academy student, true to his statement, dove like a torpedo in lane 7 to put Team Poland into the lead position and give his teammates Dominik Dudys, Mateusz Chowaniec and Jakub Kraska the extra strength to never let go of that advantage.
Their effort was enough to fend off the Italian and Brazilian teams’ comeback attempts.
“It’s not luck if we are here now, because we have prepared for this event for a year and a half with this squad,” added Dudys.
The physical education student even warned the global audience to get ready for larger ambitions.
“You better be prepared to see this squad in the Paris Olympics next year.”
Their minds already turned towards their next events, the gold medalists were not too keen on heavy celebration.
“We know that we are in good shape and are focused on regeneration. So maybe we’ll just let ourselves drink a sugared Coke instead of diet one tonight,” joked Chowaniec.
The local crowd did not dwell for too long on China’s fourth place in the relay race, for it had been rather spoiled until then.
In less than an hour, Chinese swimmers beat no less than three FISU Games records, starting with quadruple Olympic medalist Zhang Yufei and world record holder Qin Haiyang.
The two superstars had evidently recovered from their brilliant successes at the world championships just a few days earlier in Japan as they did not even set these records during finals but rather in the women’s 50 butterfly (25.29) and men’s 100 breaststroke (58.42) semi-finals.
“It is my first time in Chengdu and I want to make the most of it,” said a very joyful Zhang.
The Nanjing Southeast University physical education student shared her desire to discover the region and its food specificities.
“The crowd is amazing here, and I could hear them cheer and rally not only me, but all Chinese participants in the pool,” added Qin.
In the women’s 4×100 free, the national crowd was joined by foreign delegations in its wild support of the Chinese winning team, which saluted the “contagious energy” from the thousands of fans and said they appreciated the great chance the Chengdu Games offered them to discover and know their own country a little better.
More records are expected to be set in the coming days in swimming, especially since Zhang and Qin are respectively competing in eight and six more events.
Written by Louis Gilles, FISU Young Reporter
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