Caeleb Dressel Scares World Records on Night Seven In Budapest: Full Finals Recap

by Andy Ross

29 July 2017, 11:00am

The penultimate night of finals at the 2017 FINA World Championships featured six exciting finals as American Caeleb Dressel won two individual gold medals and scared the world record in both events. Dressel won the 50 free and 100 fly with very quick times as he also led off the world record setting mixed 400 free relay team.

Sarah Sjostrom also broke a world record as she won the 50 fly with a championship record and set the 50 free world record in a semi-final. Sjostrom lowered Britta Steffen’s 2009 record and Sjostorm now holds the 50 and 100 free records.

Emily Seebohm also picked up a gold medal as she won the first in the pool for Australia in the 200 back. Katie Ledecky became the first person to win three straight 800 free World titles as she won her third gold of the meet.

Heat Sheets

Results

Tonight’s events:

• Women’s 50 Fly
• Men’s 50 Free
• Women’s 200 Back
• Women’s 50 Breast (SF)
• Men’s 100 Fly
• Women’s 50 Free (SF)
• Men’s 50 Back (SF)
• Women’s 800 Free
• Mixed 400 Free Relay

Women’s 50 Fly

Sarah Sjostrom just missed her world record in the 50 fly as she collected her second gold medal and her third overall medal with a win in the 50 fly on Saturday night at the 2017 FINA World Championships. Sjostrom swam a 24.60 to break her championship record from 2015 at 24.96.

Dutch swimmer Ranomi Kromowidjojo (25.38) grabbed silver and Egypt’s Farida Osman (25.39) grabbed bronze. Osman’s time is a new African record, beating the time she set last night. American Kelsi Worrell finished in fourth with a 25.48 to break the American Record.

Canada’s Penny Oleksiak (25.62), France’s Melanie Henique (25.76), Belgium’s Kimberly Buys (25.78) and Germany’s Aliena Schmidtke (26.08) also competed in the championship final.

Sweden has now won three World titles in the 50 fly as Sjostrom joins herself (2015) and Therese Alshammar (2007) as Swedish winners in the event. Sweden has now medaled at seven of the nine World Championships in this event.

Men’s 50 Free

American Caeleb Dressel set himself up for a huge night as he broke the American Record in the 50 free on Saturday night at the 2017 FINA World Championships. Dressel swam a monster 21.15 to win his second individual gold medal of the meet in the 50 free. Brazil’s Bruno Fratus (21.27) and Great Britain’s Ben Proud (21.43) finished in silver and bronze.

Russia’s Vladimir Morozov (21.46), Poland’s Pawel Juraszek (21.47), Finland’s Ari-Pekka Liukkonen (21.67), Greece’s Kristian Gkolomeev (21.73) and Brazil’s Cesar Cielo (21.83) also competed in the championship final.

Dressel wins the first American gold medal in the 50 free since Ben Wildman-Tobriner won in Melbourne in 2007. Dressel has a chance to pick up another gold medal in the 100 fly later on in the session.

Women’s 200 Back

It has been a tough week for the Australian team as they had not won a single gold medal all week. Emily Seebohm captured the first gold medal for the Australians as she defended her 200 back title from 2015 with a win on Saturday night in Budapest. Seebohm used a 31.38 on her last 50 to swim by Katinka Hosszu and Kathleen Baker over the last 50.

Seebohm won the gold medal with a 2:05.68 for a new Australian record, breaking her 2:05.81 from the night before. Hungary’s Hosszu won the silver medal for her third medal of the meet at 2:05.85. American Kathleen Baker won the bronze medal at 2:06.48.

Australia’s Kaylee McKeown finished in fourth with a 2:06.76 for a new world junior record, breaking the time from Regan Smith in the semi-finals (2:07.19). McKeown used the only other sub 32 split in the field on the last 50.

Canada’s Kylie Masse (2:07.04), Canada’s Hilary Caldwell (2:07.15), Russia’s Daria Ustinova (2:07.35), and USA’s Smith (2:07.42) also competed in the championship final.

Seebohm is the third person to defend the 200 back title as she joins American Missy Franklin (2011, 2013) and East Germany’s Kornelia Sirch (1982, 1986) as swimmers who defended the title.

Women’s 50 Breast (SF)

American Lilly King broke the American Record in the 50 breast semi-finals with a 29.60. She just missed the World Record of 29.48 from 2013. King sets herself up for another race with Russian Yulia Efimova who is the second seed at 29.73. Fellow American Katie Meili is the third seed at 30.12.

Lithuanian world record holder Ruta Meilutyte (30.40) is the fourth seed and could be a spoiler for the medals. Swedish defending champion Jennie Johansson (30.41) is the fifth seed and could surprise again.

Great Britain’s Sarah Vasey (30.46), Italy’s Arianna Castiglioni (30.46) and Canada’s Rachel Nicol (30.49) will also compete in Sunday’s championship final.

Men’s 100 Fly

Caeleb Dressel won his second gold medal of the night on Saturday at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest. Dressel was oh-so-close to Michael Phelps’ world record in the 100 fly as Dressel became the third swimmer under 50 seconds with a 49.86 to win the gold medal. Dressel is now the second fastest performer in history behind Phelps. He moved ahead of Serbian Milorad Cavic for second all-time. He became the first swimmer to break 50 seconds in a textile suit.

It was perhaps the fastest field in history as second went to Hungarian Krisztof Milak (50.62) breaking his World Junior record from last night. Singapore’s Joseph Schooling and Great Britain’s James Guy (50.83) tied for bronze in the event as those two picked up their first individual medals of the meet.

Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh (50.92), China’s Li Zhuhao (50.96), Australia’s Grant Irvine (51.00) and France’s Mehdy Metella (51.16) also competed in the very very quick final.

The US now has ten overall gold medals in the men’s 100 fly at the World Championships as Dressel joins Phelps (2007-2011), Ian Crocker (2003, 2005), Pablo Morales (1986), Matt Gribble (1982), Joe Bottom (1978) and Gregory Jagenburg (1975) as gold medalists in the event.

Women’s 50 Free (SF)

Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden has had herself a spectacular week as she broke her second world record of the meet on Saturday in the semi-finals of the 50 free in Budapest. Sjostrom swam a 23.67 to break the old record of 23.73 held by Britta Steffen of Germany from 2009. Sjostrom was the only swimmer under 24 seconds in the semi-final as she will be the top seed tomorrow. Sjostrom already won the 50 fly gold medal earlier in the night.

Reigning Olympic champion Pernille Blume of Denmark (24.05) is the second seed just ahead of American Simone Manuel (24.12). Manuel and Blume were on the podium with Sjostrom in the 100 free last night as Manuel upset the Swede for the gold medal as Blume finished in bronze position.

Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo (24.20), Australia’s Bronte Campbell (24.43), France’s Anna Santamans (24.54), China’s Liu Xiang (24.56) and Belarus’ Aliaksandra Herasimenia (24.59) will also swim in the final tomorrow.

Men’s 50 Back (SF)

France’s Camille Lacourt swam the fastest time of the semi-finals in the 50 back with a 24.30 to be the top seed in tomorrow’s final. Lacourt announced in May he was going to retire after Budapest so tomorrow could be his last race of his career. Lacourt leads veterans in Japan’s Junya Koga (24.44) and USA’s Matt Grevers (24.65).

China’s Xu Jiayu (24.67), USA’s Justin Ress (24.70), Belarus’ Pavel Sankovich (24.74), France’s Jeremy Stravius (24.81) and Israel’s Jonatan Kopelev (24.84) will also compete in Sunday’s championship final.

Lacourt is the two-time defending champion in the 50 back and will be looking to close out his career in style on Sunday night.

Women’s 800 Free

Katie Ledecky became the first female swimmer to win the 800 free at the World Championships three times. Ledecky won her third straight world title in the event on Saturday at the FINA World Championships in Budapest with an 8:12.68 for gold. China’s Li Bingjie (8:15.46) broke the Asian Record for the silver medal as the fifteen-year-old picks up her second medal of the meet after getting bronze in the 400. American Leah Smith picked up the bronze with an 8:17.22 for her best time.

Spain’s Mireia Belmonte (8:23.30), Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas (8:24.41), China’s Zhang Yuhan (8:26.06), Italy’s Simona Quadarella (8:26.50) and Great Britain’s Holly Hibbott (8:38.63) also competed in the championship final.

Ledecky is the first to win three straight as Kate Ziegler (2005, 2007), Hannah Stockbauer (2001, 2003) and Janet Evans (1991, 1994) all won two straight but never three.

Mixed 400 Free Relay

The United States finished off night seven at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest with a huge world record in the mixed 400 free relay. Caeleb Dressel won his third gold medal of the night as he led off at 47.22. Nathan Adrian (47.49), Mallory Comerford (52.71) and Simone Manuel (52.18) also swam on the world record setting relay as they finished at 3:19.60 to demolish the record they set in 2015 at 3:23.05.

The Netherlands also finished under the old record as they went 3:21.81 with Ben Schwietert (49.12), Kyle Stolk (47.80), Femke Heemskerk (52.33) and Ranomi Kromowidjojo (52.56) as they broke the European Record. Canada finished with the bronze at 3:23.55. Yuri Kisil (48.51), Javier Acevedo (48.68), Chantal Van Landeghem (53.25) and Penny Oleksiak (53.11) swam for the Canadians.

Japan (3:24.78), Italy (3:24.89), Hungary (3:25.02), Russia (3:25.49) and Australia (3:25.51) also competed in the final.

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