World Championships, Day 5 Finals: Finlay Knox Wins 200IM From Lane Seven; Foster & Razzetti On Podium

Carson Foster, Finlay Knox & Alberto Razzetti: photo courtesy: G.Perottino/Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto

World Championships, Day 5 Finals: Finlay Knox Wins 200IM From Lane Seven; Foster & Razzetti On Podium

Finlay Knox won 200IM gold from lane seven after coming through on the final 50 at the World Championships in Doha.

Carson Foster led USA teammate Shaine Casas at the final turn with Knox third before a 27.79 final 50 saw the Canadian into the wall in 1:56.64.

With that, the 23-year-old took 0.62 from his national record of 1:57.26 set in March 2023 as he claimed his first global title.

Foster won the fourth individual silver of his career in 1:56.97 while Alberto Razzetti came from fifth at the 150 to take bronze in 1:57.42, with the Italian claiming his second medal of the meet following 200 fly silver.

Knox became the first Canadian man to win the title since Graham Smith in 1978 and only the third to make the 2IM podium with Alex Baumann having claimed silver in 1986.

He acknowledged the absence of the likes of Leon Marchand – winner at Budapest 2022 and Fukuoka 2023 – knowing that Paris 2024 will present quite a different proposition.

He said:

“Having ‘world champion’ under my name is great but obviously there are quite a few big names that weren’t in the field tonight.

“For me it gave me the opportunity to step up and shine but obviously we know some of those guys would put up faster times.

“For me it’s just a step forward. I am very happy to be in the spotlight tonight, but at the back of my mind, I know there are some faster swimmers out there and that keeps me hungry.

“I just trust in my abilities and my talent knowing that when I step up I am capable of putting up a performance like anyone else.

The USA won eight straight titles in the 2IM between the 2003 and 2017 worlds but since then Daiya Seto – at Gwangju 2019 – Marchand and now Knox have taken the honours.

Foster said:

“I think for right now in the season it was a good race and I did perform well. I think overall I can’t complain about a silver medal.

“I would’ve liked to be a little quicker but I think getting back on the podium, I can say I’m stepping in the right direction.”

Razzetti added:

“I was trying to get a medal at these championships. Now I have two of them so of course it’s amazing.”

Shaine Casas led Knox and Foster at the 50 with the latter taking the lead after the backstroke from his teammate.

Foster still led at 150 ahead of Casas and Knox with the Canadian coming through for the win.

Daiya Seto was fourth in 1:57.54 with Casas fifth (1:57.73) followed by Olympic silver medallist Duncan Scott (1:57.75), Lewis Clareburt (1:58.66) and Zhang Zhanshuo (1:59.17).

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