World Championships, Day Six Semifinals: Cameron McEvoy Accelerates Away From Field For Top Seed In 50 Free

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Cameron McEvoy: Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

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World Championships, Day Six Semifinals: Cameron McEvoy Accelerates Away From Field For Top Seed In 50 Free

Cameron McEvoy flew to the head of the 50 free field with a 21.25 PB in the semis of the World Championships.

McEvoy arrived in Fukuoka with the two fastest times of the year having gone 21.27 and 21.41 at last month’s Australian trials.

Come the morning heats and he posted 21.35 for second in 2023 and top seed into the semis before lowering that by 0.10 in the evening semis.

The 29-year-old was level until the 25m mark before he accelerated and by the touch had more than close to a bodylength lead over fellow Australian Isaac Cooper (21.65).

It propelled him to ninth all-time.

McEvoy leads the way ahead of Jack Alexy – 100 silver medallist – who clocked 21.60 with defending champion Ben Proud next through in 21.61.

Cooper, world short-course champion Jordan Crooks (21.73), Leonardo Deplano (21.74), Kristian Gkolomeev (21.85) and Josh Liendo made up the field. After the race, Liendo announced he was scratching the final to focus on the 100 butterfly. That decision led to a swimoff between American Ryan Held and the Ukraine’s Vladyslav Bukhov, who tied for ninth in 21.91. Held won the swimoff, 21.68 to 21.70, to reach the final.

However, there’s no room in the final for Florent Manaudou, the 2012 Olympic champion 12th in 21.96.

McEvoy has been training under coach Tim Lane at Brisbane’s Somerville House school programme as he targets his first world title.

He has an armoury jam-packed full of medals including six from World Championships dating back to Barcelona 2013, five in relays and a silver in the 100 free at Kazan 2015.

On top of that, McEvoy has three Olympic medals as well as three golds among eight Commonwealth medals and five from Pan-Pacs at Gold Coast 2014 including his sole individual career title in the 100 free.

He has a Commonwealth 50 free silver from Glasgow 2014 and bronze at Gold Coast 2018.

Proud – who won a historic world, Commonwealth and European treble last year – nodded to McEvoy, saying:

“I was happy with that.

“Going into the first semi, I knew I had to pull out something respectable to get myself through and that’s safely done.

“There’s a clear favourite now in Cam McEvoy so coming up tomorrow night, I’ll be next to him and it’ll be good to give him a good race.

“It changes every time. The final tomorrow is very different to what we thought it was going to be.

“So now it’s a matter of getting the job done, getting some rest and then coming back tomorrow to see how it goes.

“We’ve nothing to lose.”

2023-07-28 (2)

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