Until last week, it was looking very likely that we would not see a 100 long course freestyle under 48 seconds until the world championships. Usually, one or two Australians put up something amazing at their April nationals, but that didn\u2019t happen this year. None of the world championship medal contenders from other countries stepped up to the plate, either, making us wonder if the 100 free final in Kazan this August would be a pedestrian affair.<\/p>\n
Then, Vladimir Morozov swam the 100 free last Tuesday, and the potential of an electric world championship final presented itself when \u201c47.98\u201d flashed on the scoreboard. That was the first swim under 48 this season, and gave the world championship host country a solid gold medal contender. It was one of Morozov\u2019s best times since becoming a professional swimmer, second only to his 47.62 from the 2013 World University Games.<\/p>\n
That 47.62 would have won the 2013 world title, but Morozov was unable to replicate his swim. Given that the 47.62 took place in Kazan (albeit in a different pool than will be used for worlds), it likely gives Morozov a bit of confidence going into these next three months of training and racing.<\/p>\n
Whether Morozov can replicate that 47.98 from last week is yet to be seen, but given that the American representatives in the 100 free, Nathan Adrian and Ryan Lochte, are saving their tapered swims for Kazan, Morozov will need to be much faster. The Australian duo of Cameron McEvoy and James Magnussen will be tough, as will anyone else in the final.<\/p>\n
But for now, Vlad Morozov can enjoy the 47.98, which earns him the Swimming World Performance of the Week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Until last week, it was looking very likely that we would not see a 100 long course freestyle under 48 seconds until the world championships. Usually, one or two Australians<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":55256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,10,41228],"tags":[27536,25342,26558,25038,19138,142,26559,474],"class_list":["post-132766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-world","category-performance-of-the-week-videos","tag-cameron-mcevoy","tag-james-magnussen","tag-kazan","tag-nathan-adrian","tag-ryan-lochte","tag-swimming","tag-vladimir-morozov","tag-world-championship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n