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The final heat of the men’s 800 freestyle at the FINA world championships was so fast that six of the eight men that moved on to the final came from that heat. American Connor Jaeger led that second heat, nearly swimming a lifetime best to get lane four for the final.
He said he planned before the race to swim hard, and was happy to see the time of 7:44.77 on the scoreboard.
“I really didn’t want to mess around, and made sure I got into the finals,” he said. “I knew I was going to try to go that fast. To be able to win a tight heat like that and come close to my best time is real exciting.”
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Recognizing that such top athletes as Ryan Cochrane didn’t swim fast enough in the first heat to make the final, Jaeger was even happier that he had a group of fast swimmers in his heat to keep pushing him.
“It was a very competitive heat, and I felt that throughout the whole race,” he said.
Great!