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ROME, Italy, July 28. POLAND's Pawel Korzeniowski was one of five swimmers in the 1:54s to lead qualifying in the men's 200 fly at the FINA World Championships.
Korzenioswki topped prelims with a 1:54.33 out of heat six, and the time withstood two more heats that followed. Superstar Michael Phelps finished second in 1:54.35 out of the heats, while compatriot Tyler Clary placed third overall in 1:54.42.
South Africa's Sebastien Rousseau (1:54.51) and Brazil's Kaio Almeida (1:54.57) also clocked 1:54s to finish fourth and fifth. Rousseau beat his national record of 1:55.51 set in April.
Russia's Nikolay Skvortsov (1:55.07), Austria's Dinko Jukic (1:55.45) and China's Chen Yin (1:55.49) were among the top eight. Jukic lowered his national record of 1:55.65 set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Great Britain's Michael Rock (1:55.76), China's Wu Peng (1:55.96), New Zealand's Moss Burmester (1:56.03), Japan's Takeshi Matsuda (1:56.10), Brazil's Lucas Salatta (1:56.16), Portugal's Pedro Oliveira (1:56.17), The Netherlands' Joeri Verlinden (1:56.59) and Japan's Ryusuke Sakata (1:56.75) also made semis.
Oliveira downed the national record of 1:56.71 set by Diogo Carvalho in April, while Verlinden lowered the Dutch mark of 1:57.45 he also set in April.