The U.S. Swimming team has a ninja on its team this year. Nicholas “Nic” Fink has a day job as an engineer, but he moonlights as a national-level swimmer. Given his stamina and flexibility, fans were hoping that Fink would bring home some gold medals from the world championships. However, a Chinese swimming prodigy stole the show by winning triple golds, leaving Fink and the rest of the competition in awe.

China’s Qin Haiyang won the 50m, 100m, and 200m titles at the Fukuoka World Championships this week. With these monumental victories, he has made a record as the first person to have ever won triple gold in all three events at the world championships.

Qin Haiyang sweeping victory at the Fukuoka World Championships

Haiyang won his first title of the championships on Monday when he obliterated the competition in the 100m breaststroke. He pulled ahead of Nic Fink, who tied for the second rank with Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi and Netherlands’ Arno Kamminga. Next, he came face to face with Fink in the 50m breaststroke. He captured the gold with a timing of 26.29 seconds. Nic Fink left the pool as the first runner-up touching the wall 0.30 seconds after the Chinese legend. When Fink and Haiyang entered the 200m breaststroke event yesterday, Fink’s fans were eager to see if he could finally defeat the dominant Chinese swimmer. However, Haiyang once again proved his superiority, finishing first with a remarkable time of 2:05.48.

Haiyang also managed to shatter the previous world record in the event. SwimSwam Live broke the news on their official Twitter account with a post that read, “Qin Haiyang with a new WORLD RECORD in the men’s 200 breaststroke with a 2:05.48!!” The previous record holder in the event was Zac Stubblety-Cook, who finished the 200m breaststroke in 2:05.95 at the 2022 Australian Championships. The American swimming team was represented by Matt Fallon, who won the bronze after finishing more than two seconds behind the winner. With this, America has fallen behind China in the overall ranking.

The Bald Eagle in the Dragon’s jaws

The U.S. Swimming contingency was determined to yet again make a splash in the World Championships. Last year, they had the highest number of gold medals and were declared the absolute winners of the championship. However, the American team faced tough competition from China, whose swimmers performed well and secured several gold medals. Despite Nic Fink’s two silver medals and Matt Fallon’s one bronze medal, the American team’s overall ranking dropped behind China’s.

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Australia has also pulled ahead of the U.S. this year. As per the rankings at the moment, China leads with 19 golds, followed by Australia with 11 golds. Japan is a distant third on the ranking, with just 4 gold medals, while the U.S.A. stands in the fifth position with 3 gold medals won. The U.S. swimming team has very limited events left to bounce back. The team will need to perform exceptionally well in the remaining events if they hope to improve their ranking. The pressure is on for the American swimmers to secure more gold medals and close the gap between them and the leading countries.

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