World Championships: Olympic champion Zac Stubblety-Cook Starts World Title Bid With A Winning Touch; Caspar Corbeau Sets Pace
Olympic and world record holder Zac Stubblety-Cook has begun his bid to become Australia’s first world champion in the men’s 200m breaststroke in winning touch in Budapest today.
The 23-year-old from Queensland lunged at the finish, timing his touch to perfection to win in 2:09.09 from Dutchman Caspar Corbeau (2:09.15).
Corbeau had led for 199 metres – clocking under world record place at the 50m and holding on to an impressive lead until Stubblety-Cook, with his signature powerhouse second 50m claiming victory in the fourth and final heat.
The third, fourth and fifth qualifiers all came from the first seeded heat won by US debutant Charlie Swanson (2:09.36) from Sweden’s Erik Persson (2:09.58) and Iceland’s Anton McKee (2:09.69).
Fourth home in that heat, 2020 Olympic bronze medallist Matti Mattsson from Finland, was the seventh fastest overall.
Australia has won three medals at previous world championships the in the 200m breaststroke – the last one being silver to Matthew Wilson (16th fastest qualifier for tonight’s semi-finals) in 2019 after he equaled the world record in the semi-finals.
The two previous medals were to 2008 Olympic silver medallist, Brenton Rickard in Melbourne in 2007 and the other to Christian Sprenger who shared the bronze in Rome in 2009.