Italy’s Piero Codia barely snuck into the men’s 100 fly final, qualifying eighth, but just 24 hours later, he was the best in the field. Swimming in lane eight, Codia ended up dominating and touching first in 50.64. That makes him the second-fastest man in the world this year, behind Caeleb Dressel (50.50) and ahead of Chad Le Clos (50.65).
Codia’s win marked the second for a swimmer in lane eight this week, following Duncan Scott’s win in the men’s 200 free. It was a good heat all around for swimmers in outside lanes as France’s Mehdy Metella, swimming in lane one, grabbed silver in 51.24.
Great Britain’s James Guy took his first individual medal of the week with a bronze, touching in 51.42. Guy, who like the top two was on the outside of the pool (lane two), previously finished fourth in the 200 free and anchored the British men’s 4×200 free rely to gold.
Hungary’s Kristof Milak, the World Champs silver medalist last year behind Dressel and the European champion in the 200 fly earlier this week, finished a surprising fourth in 51.51. He was followed by Russia’s Egor Kuimov (51.62), Poland’s Konrad Czerniak (51.72) and Russia’s Aleksandr Sadovnikov (51.81).
Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh, the 32-year-old veteran and six-time Olympic medalist, was the top qualifier out of the semi-finals (in his only final of the week), but he faded all the way to eighth in 51.84.
