{"id":342013,"date":"2018-12-12T05:21:31","date_gmt":"2018-12-12T12:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=342013"},"modified":"2019-06-19T13:16:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T20:16:36","slug":"blake-pieroni-wins-first-individual-world-championship-title-in-200-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/blake-pieroni-wins-first-individual-world-championship-title-in-200-free\/","title":{"rendered":"RACE VIDEO: Blake Pieroni Wins First Individual World Championship Title In 200 Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

American\u00a0Blake Pieroni\u00a0<\/strong>led from start to finish in the men’s 200 free, touching the wall in 1:41.49 to take the gold. He was able to hold off a hard-charging\u00a0Danas Rapsys\u00a0<\/strong>from Lithuania, who closed with an impressive 25.96 final 50. In third was Australia’s\u00a0Alexander Graham\u00a0<\/strong>in 1:42.28.<\/p>\n

It was not a best time for Pieroni, who swam a 1:41.15 earlier in the year at the Singapore World Cup in November. He remains the second fastest American all-time in the 200 SCM free behind\u00a0Ryan Lochte<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Pieroni\u00a0(on bouncing back to win gold): \u201cIt was a great race, probably not a perfectly split race but I felt a lot better than this morning. This morning was kind of a struggle, and I definitely wanted to go out a bit faster tonight. Not necessarily 2 seconds faster at the 100, but regardless of the time or how it was split I\u2019m happy with the win.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Immediately after the race Graham, who is coached by Bond\u2019s Richard Scarce<\/strong>, said: \u201cI had a good heat this morning and wasn\u2019t really expecting to make the final to be honest and dropped a lot of time in that race, so was stoked with that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my first world championship final as an individual, so I am stoked to come away with a medal,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n