World Championships, Day Six: Nic Fink Does Sprint Breast Double with AR

Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

A Special Thanks to Deep Blue Media for providing the images from this meet

World Championships, Day Six: Nic Fink Does Sprint Breast Double with AR

At 28 years of age, Nic Fink had arguably the best meet of his career in Abu Dhabi at the 2021 FINA Short-Course World Championship.

That item on his resume will have to be revised after what he’s done in Melbourne.

The American capped off a stellar meet at the 2022 World Championships by winning the 50 breaststroke Sunday in a championship record 25.38 seconds. He also lowered his American record from the 25.53 he used to win a year ago.

In doing so, Fink capped another out-of-this-world championships. Last year, he won gold in the 50 breast and 200 breast to go with bronze in the 100 (plus a medley relay gold and two silvers). This time around, he’s done the 50/100 double and silver in the 200. Add gold in the 50 breast at long-course Worlds in Budapest and bronze in the 100, and it’s been quite a year for Fink, who is swimming his best times in sight of age 30.

“I’m happy to still be going PRs, still be going best times,” he said Sunday, “and most importantly, still having fun.”

The all-purpose dominance is rare in breaststroke: When Fink won medals in all three breaststroke events last year, he was the first to pull that feat since 2004 (Brendan Hansen with three golds, and Brenton Rickard with three silvers). Now, he’s done it two meets in a row, the latest at the Melbourne World Championships.

So often, that’s been at the expense of Nicolo Martinenghi. The runner-up in the 100 breast (and the runner-up in the 50 last year), the Italian got the jump on Fink Sunday, off the block quicker than his rival by a clean tenth. Martinenghi was first to the 25-meter wall, with Fink third. But Fink churned home quicker to win gold by .04, Martinenghi tallying a time of 25.42 that was just .05 off his best tie. He was joined by countryman Simone Cerasuolo on the podium, the younger Italian grabbing bronze in 25.68.

Fourth was China’s Qin Haiyang in 25.82. American Michael Andrew was second at the 25-meter wall but faded to fifth in 25.92.

The possibility of outside smoke drama didn’t quite materialize. In Lane 1, Adam Peaty was quickest off the block (by .14 over Fink) but was eighth at the first wall and took sixth in 25.99. World record-holder Emre Sakci was never quite in the picture, finishing eighth in 26.09.

World record: Emre Sakci, Turkey 24.95 (2021)
Championship record: Cameron van der Burgh, South Africa, 25.41 (2018)
World junior record: Simone Cerasuolo, Italy 25.85 (2021)

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