{"id":578262,"date":"2024-02-16T01:26:06","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T08:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=578262"},"modified":"2024-02-16T06:13:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T13:13:09","slug":"world-championships-day-6-prelims-men-australias-cam-mcevoy-puts-50-freestyle-wr-under-seige","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-day-6-prelims-men-australias-cam-mcevoy-puts-50-freestyle-wr-under-seige\/","title":{"rendered":"World Championships, Day 6 Prelims (Men): Australia’s Cam McEvoy Puts 50 Freestyle WR Under Siege"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Championships, Day 6 Prelims (Men): Australia’s Cam McEvoy Puts 50 Freestyle WR Under Seige<\/strong><\/p>\n

Australia’s reigning champion, Cam McEvoy<\/strong> has put the world record on notice after unleashing a sizzling 21.13 heat swim to set the Aspire Dome alight on Day Six of the World Championships in Doha – arguably the fastest preliminary 50m swim in history – and just 0.22 outside a world mark that has stood for 15 years.<\/p>\n

Brazilian Cesar Cielo<\/strong>‘s December 2009 world mark of 20.91 is officially under siege from the 29-year-old revitalised Australian who rocketed off the blocks – clocking a time 0.22 faster than his heat swim from Fukuoka last year before he went on to take the world crown in 21.06 – to become the fourth fastest performer in history.<\/p>\n

McEvoy streeted the field in the 12th and final heat and finished well ahead of second fastest overall qualifier, the Ukraine’s Vladislav Bukhov<\/strong> (21.56) from heat 10 and third fastest, veteran Greek sprinter Kristian Gkolomeev<\/strong> (21.70) in heat 11.<\/p>\n

McEvoy was also just 0.09 outside Olympic champion and 2017 and 2019 world champion Caeleb Dressel<\/strong>‘s Championship mark of 21.04 set back in 2019 in Gwangju.<\/p>\n

Only Cielo, the 2008 Olympic champion and 2009, 2011 and 2013 world champion and Frenchman Fred Bousquets, the 2012 Olympic champion (20.94) have swum under 21 seconds – with Dressel’s 21.04 the third fastest.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile Austria’s Tokyo Olympian Simon Bucher<\/strong> (51.42) leads the qualifiers into the semi-finals in what looks like a wide open men’s 100m butterfly, winning the final heat from US-based Dutchman Olympian Nyls Korstanje<\/strong> (51.70) after Japan’s Katsuhiro Matsumoto<\/strong> (51.60) took out heat six with the second fastest time of the day<\/p>\n

Two-time champion, South African Chad Le Clos<\/strong> (52.04) is the equal eighth fastest qualifier into the semi-finals with last night’s 200 individual medley champion, Canadian Finlay Knox<\/strong> with both swimmers clocking 52.04.<\/p>\n

Le Clos took the title in Budapest in 2013 and Kazan in 2015, winning bronze in 2019.<\/p>\n

There is just 1.10 seconds separating the top 16.<\/p>\n

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And there is a serious likelihood that a new champion could be crowned in the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay final with nine-time winners, the USA<\/strong> scraping into the final in lane eight and three-time winners Great Britain<\/strong> the sixth fastest qualifying team – but there is less than four seconds separating top qualifier China<\/strong> (7:06.93) and eighth qualifier the US (7:10.70), with Korea, Italy, Greece, Lithuania<\/strong> and Spain<\/strong> all vying for their first ever gold in this prestigious relay – first won by the US team of Kurt Krumpholz, Robin Backhaus, Richard Klatt<\/strong> and Jim Montgomery<\/strong> in Belgrade in 1973.<\/p>\n

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