By John Lohn
MELBOURNE, Australia, March 30. THE 50 freestyle is always a nail-biting, guns-blazing event and the semifinals of the one-lap sprint were no different tonight. A surprise as the top qualifier heading into the championship final, Sweden's Stefan Nystrand was the only athlete to crack the 22-second barrier, narrowly doing so with a time of 21.99.
Nystrand will have his hands full in the pursuit of gold tomorrow night as a talented field will be pushing for the three medal positions. The No. 2 seed for the final is American Cullen Jones, perhaps the biggest rising talent in the world in the sprint freestyle. Jones won his semifinal only a hundredth slower than Nystrand, going 22.00.
"I just wanted to get a middle lane for tomorrow night," Jones said. "I am happy but there are a few little things I can change. The 50 is all about the start, the breakout and the finish. There is definitely something wrong at the start."
Fresh off NCAA championships and records in the 50 and 100 freestyles for Auburn University, Brazilian Cesar Cielo was third in 22.09 while Poland's Bart Kizierowski, first in the prelims, was fourth in 22.13. Rounding out the field were Australia's Eamon Sullivan (22.19), American Ben Wildman-Tobriner (22.23), South Africa's Roland Schoeman (22.24) and Canada's Brent Hayden (22.31). Schoeman is the defending champ.
Click Here to view event results PDF file.
