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ROME, Italy, July 27. SPAIN's Aschwin Wildeboer posted the only sub-53 time of prelims in the men's 100 back en route to a meet-record effort at the FINA World Championships. Wildeboer clocked in at 52.93 to edge Aaron Peirsol's 2007 standard of 52.98.
Japan's Ryosuke Irie (53.00), Great Britain's Liam Tancock (53.08), Japan's Junya Koga (53.08) and Peirsol (53.08) did not finish far behind in qualifying for semis. Tancock's effort beat his national record of 53.20 set in March.
Germany's Helge Meeuw (53.28), Australia's Ashley Delaney (53.33) and Austria's Markus Rogan (53.62) placed sixth through eighth.
France's Jeremy Stravius (53.67), Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin (53.73), Italy's Mirco Di Tora (53.77), Spain's Juan Miguel Rando (53.89), Russia's Stanislav Donets (53.89), The Netherlands' Nicolaas Driebergen (53.94), Greece's Aristeidis Grigoriadis (53.94) and the United States' Matt Grevers (54.04) also made semifinals.
Di Tora lowered his Italian mark of 54.05 set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, while Driebergen's readout bettered his 54.75 set in March 2008.