Italy led the way from the beginning to end, clocking seven minutes 20.34 seconds in the men's relay final while the Americans edged France in the final leg and won the silver medal in 7:23.62.

France had to settle for the third place in 7:23.71.

"We are not surprised that we beat the United States. We train hard and perform well today," said the Italian relay members.

American Peter Marshall delighted the the crowd by breaking the men's 100m backstroke Universiade record in the semifinals with a time of 55.40, 0.20 seconds better than the previous record set by Cuban Rodo Fralcon-Cabrera in 1993.

Japanese Kohei Kawamoto improved his own men's 50m butterfly meet record in 24.19 in the semifinals, slicing 0.06 off his morning record.

Ukraine Yana Klochkova, world champion in the women's 400 meters individual medley at the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan last month, claimed the victory in the women's 800m freestyle in 8:36.37.

Jana Pechanova from Czech Republic finished second in 8:38.50 and Sachiko Yamada from Japan won the bronze in 8:38.59.

"I am happy to win the first swimming gold medal on the opening day of the Games," said Yana, silver medalist of the 800m freestyle in Sydney Olympic Games.

Yana, who broke the women's 400m individual medley world record at Sydney Olympics and swept both medley golds in 200m and 400m, will compete in her favorite events in this Universiade.

"I will try my best to win golds, " Yana said.

Davide Rummolo and Michele Vangni gave Italy a one-two finish leading into the men's 200m breaststroke by clocking 2:15.88 and 2: 16.26, with Russian Roman Makarov the third 2:16.42.

Han Xue, the only Chinese who competed at Fukuoka World Championships, topped the women's 100m freestyle semifinals with 55.76. Petra Dallmann of Germany and Olga Mukomol of Ukraine came to second and third in 56.53 and 56.67, respectively.

Six gold medals will be decided tomorrow as in women's 100m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay and men's 100m backstroke, 50 m butterfly, 200m breaststroke and 800m freestyle.

(Xinhua News Agency 08/24/2001)