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FINA World Swimming Championships
Gwangju 2019
Day Five Heats (Men’s 200 Breaststroke)
Australia’s Matthew Wilson, fresh off a great 58.37 split in the mixed medley relay last night, rattled the 200 breast world record on Thursday morning at the 2019 FINA World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. Wilson was under world record pace through 150 meters as he cruised to the top seed at 2:07.29. He was out in a 1:01.07 (under WR pace of 1:01.33) and a 1:33.75 at the 150, which was under the 1:34.02 pace.
Wilson’s best time is a 2:07.16 from earlier this year so he did not break his own Australian record. He is looking dangerous to take down the 2:06.67 world record from Ippei Watanabe set two and a half years ago.
Wilson is almost a full second ahead of Russia’s Anton Chupkov, who is the reigning world champion from 2017 and the second-fastest performer ever in the 200 breast. Chupkov is second into semifinals at 2:08.22 as he should have a lot left. Germany’s Marco Koch, who won the world title in 2015, is the third seed at 2:08.70. He is looking to get back on the podium after not making it out of semifinals in 2017.
Sweden’s Erik Persson (2:08.87) is the fourth seed as the top four all broke 2:09. Great Britain will be looking to sweep the breaststroke titles after Adam Peaty took care of business in the 50 and 100. Ross Murdoch (2:09.05) and James Wilby (2:09.90) both advanced to the semifinals in fifth and 13th, respectively. Wilby won the silver medal behind Peaty in the 100.
“It was a fairly good morning: it’s just about putting a tick in the box,” Murdoch said. “Its been a long week for me sitting and watching so the excitement has been building and really having to be pulling myself back. Glad to be into the meet and have my first swim.”
The semifinals were quick. Perhaps too quick.
“It’s an understatement: it’s the fastest field ever by a long way,” Murdoch said. “There’s talk that 2:07 might not even make the final. And that is ridiculous: when was that ever the case? You could go 2:07.9 and not even make it. So it is going to be quick for sure.”
As for the world record being broken Murdoch said this. “There’s a few boys out there that are really touching on that WR. Anton Chupkov has been 2:06 twice in the last two years. Matt Wilson is going very well and has been 2:07.1, the fastest in the world this year. So I think there is some boys pushing at it.”
Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook and Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands (2:09.39) each qualified through to the semifinals as well.
USA’s Andrew Wilson (2:09.61) and Josh Prenot (2:09.68) got the job done and qualified for the semifinals in eighth and ninth place respectively. World record holder Ippei Watanabe (2:09.68) and reigning Olympic Champion Dmitriy Balandin (2:09.72) also qualified for the semifinals in a very stacked field.
| 1 | WILSON | Matthew |  AUS |
2:07.29 | ||||||
| 2 | CHUPKOV | Anton |  RUS |
2:08.22 | ||||||
| 3 | KOCH | Marco |  GER |
2:08.70 | ||||||
| 4 | PERSSON | Erik |  SWE |
2:08.87 | ||||||
| 5 | MURDOCH | Ross |  GBR |
2:09.05 | ||||||
| 5 | STUBBLETY-COOK | Zac | AUS |
2:09.05 | ||||||
| 7 | KAMMINGA | Arno |  NED |
2:09.39 | ||||||
| 8 | WILSON | Andrew |  USA |
2:09.61 | ||||||
| 9 | PRENOT | Josh | USA |
2:09.68 | ||||||
| 9 | WATANABE | Ippei |  JPN |
2:09.68 | ||||||
| 11 | BALANDIN | Dmitriy |  KAZ |
2:09.72 | ||||||
| 12 | QIN | Haiyang |  CHN |
2:09.86 | ||||||
| 13 | WILBY | James | GBR |
2:09.90 | ||||||
| 14 | KOHINATA | Kazuki | JPN |
2:09.92 | ||||||
| 15 | KOPTIELOV | Mykyta |  UKR |
2:09.94 | ||||||
| 16 | MCKEE | Anton |  ISL |
2:10.32 |
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Chels Babec
Troy FG EPIC
Chels Babec what an amazing capture
Ahmed Haytham Ali Haytham
When you check if you indeed killed that mosquitoe