Great Britain’s Ben Proud couldn’t come close to his remarkable 21.11 from the semi-finals, but he still did enough to beat the field by a tenth of a second. Proud touched in 21.34, followed by Greece’s Kristian Gkolomeev in 21.44. Italy’s Andrea Vergani also got on the podium, earning a bronze in 21.68.
Russia’s Vladimir Morozov continued his disappointing European Championships with a fourth-place finish. He previously did not advance out of the prelims of the 100 free due to the two-per-country rule, and in the 50, he could only manage a time of 21.74.
Lithuania’s Simonas Bilis, who won a swim-off to secure the last spot in the championship heat, improved to fifth after he touched in 21.97, followed by the Netherlands’ Jesse Puts (22.08), Finland’s Ari-Pekka Liukkonen (22.11) and Poland’s Pawel Juraszek (22.14).
