Men’s 200 IM
China’s Wang Shun heard the roar from the home Chinese crowd in Hangzhou on Tuesday night at the FINA World Short Course Championships in the 200 IM final. Wang led from start to finish to please the Chinese crowd. He won the final with a 1:51.01 to move up to third all-time in the event and break his own Chinese record from the Tokyo World Cup this year. Wang now sits behind Ryan Lochte and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino in the all-time rankings.
Team USA also picked up a third silver medal on the night with Josh Prenot out-touching Japan’s Hiromasa Fujimori for second place. Prenot split a 27.62 on the freestyle to run down Fujimori and touch at 1:52.69 to Fujimori’s 1:52.73.
Prenot moved up to 22nd all-time with his swim and is now the third fastest American all-time behind Lochte and Michael Phelps.
Prenot (on his silver-medal performance): “That was awesome. In the morning I was just stoked to sneak into the final. I think there was 0.5 between first and eighth. I just had to trust in the training I did this fall that I could finish that last hundred strong and get my hand on the wall.”
Australia’s Mitch Larkin just missed out on a medal as he placed fourth at 1:52.78. Brazil’s Caio Pumputis finished in fifth at 1:53.05 as he is coming off a successful sophomore semester at Georgia Tech.
Brazil’s Jordan Coelho (1:53.38), Poland’s Jan Switkowski (1:53.96) and New Zealand’s Bradlee Ashby (1:54.01) also swam in the final.
All-Time Rankings:
- Ryan Lochte, USA, 1:49.63 (2012)
- Kosuke Hagino, JPN, 1:50.47 (2014)
- Wang Shun, CHN, 1:51.01 (2018)
- Daiya Seto, JPN, 1:51.09 (2018)
- Laszlo Cseh, HUN, 1:51.36 (2015)
- Darian Townsend, RSA, 1:51.55 (2009)
- Chad Le Clos, RSA, 1:51.56 (2014)
- Markus Rogan, AUT, 1:51.72 (2009)
