Japanese teenager Kanako Watanabe won the women’s 200m breaststroke gold at the world swimming championships on Friday to claim her second medal in Kazan.
Watanabe, 18, clocked two minutes, 21.15 seconds with Micah Lawrence of the United States taking silver at 1.29 back.
In a bizarre twist, bronze was split three ways as Spain’s Jessica Vall, Denmark’s world record-holder Rikke Moller Pedersen and China’s Shi Jinglin all swam exactly the same time of 2:22.76.
It was the second gold for Japanese women in the Kazan pool in as many days after Natsumi Hoshi claimed a surprise victory in the 200m butterfly on Thursday.
It was the five foot, five inch Watanabe’s second medal in Kazan after silver in the 200m individual medley on Monday behind Hungary’s ‘Iron Lady’ Katinka Hosszu.
“I am really happy, this victory is a great surprise to me,” said Watanabe.
“I just tried to save strength in the first part of the race and speed up in the last 50 metres.
“It was a close, tough race and I was really surprised that all three girls took bronze.”