Jordan Crooks<\/strong> lowered the 50m freestyle world record to 20.08 as he cut 0.08 from Caeleb Dressel’s<\/strong> time that had stood since November 2020.<\/p>\n The Cayman Islands swimmer split 9.78\/10.30 out of lane one as he took down Dressel’s 20.16 WR which the American set in the very same Duna Arena pool in Budapest<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Crooks, who swims out of the University of Tennessee, recorded the new WR in the 10th of 12 prelims and had to look on as the likes of Jack Alexy<\/strong> and Dylan Carter<\/strong> went in the following two heats.<\/p>\n Alexy posted the second-swiftest time of 20.69, 0.61 slower than Crooks whose performance was also a championship record, 0.18 inside Florent Manaudou’s<\/strong> 20.26 from Doha 2014.<\/p>\n Crooks – who was third in the 100 free – became the first athlete from the Cayman Islands to win a world title in any sport when he claimed the 50 free title at Melbourne 2022.<\/p>\n When asked what was going through his mind on poolside, Crooks – who was awarded a cheque for USD 25,000 for breaking a WR – said:\u00a0“Just try and stay in process and I’ll continue to prepare for tonight and do better.”<\/p>\n