FLASH! Jordan Crooks Blasts 50 Free WR In 20.08
Jordan Crooks lowered the 50m freestyle world record to 20.08 as he cut 0.08 from Caeleb Dressel’s time that had stood since November 2020.
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.
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 and Dylan Carter went in the following two heats.
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 20.26 from Doha 2014.
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.
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: “Just try and stay in process and I’ll continue to prepare for tonight and do better.”
