World Championships, Day 6 Prelims (Men): Australia’s Cam McEvoy Puts 50 Freestyle WR Under Seige
Australia’s reigning champion, Cam McEvoy has put the world record on notice after unleashing a sizzling 21.13 heat swim to set the Aspire Dome alight on Day Six of the World Championships in Doha – arguably the fastest preliminary 50m swim in history – and just 0.22 outside a world mark that has stood for 15 years.
Brazilian Cesar Cielo‘s December 2009 world mark of 20.91 is officially under siege from the 29-year-old revitalised Australian who rocketed off the blocks – clocking a time 0.22 faster than his heat swim from Fukuoka last year before he went on to take the world crown in 21.06 – to become the fourth fastest performer in history.
McEvoy streeted the field in the 12th and final heat and finished well ahead of second fastest overall qualifier, the Ukraine’s Vladislav Bukhov (21.56) from heat 10 and third fastest, veteran Greek sprinter Kristian Gkolomeev (21.70) in heat 11.
McEvoy was also just 0.09 outside Olympic champion and 2017 and 2019 world champion Caeleb Dressel‘s Championship mark of 21.04 set back in 2019 in Gwangju.
Only Cielo, the 2008 Olympic champion and 2009, 2011 and 2013 world champion and Frenchman Fred Bousquets, the 2012 Olympic champion (20.94) have swum under 21 seconds – with Dressel’s 21.04 the third fastest.
Meanwhile Austria’s Tokyo Olympian Simon Bucher (51.42) leads the qualifiers into the semi-finals in what looks like a wide open men’s 100m butterfly, winning the final heat from US-based Dutchman Olympian Nyls Korstanje (51.70) after Japan’s Katsuhiro Matsumoto (51.60) took out heat six with the second fastest time of the day
Two-time champion, South African Chad Le Clos (52.04) is the equal eighth fastest qualifier into the semi-finals with last night’s 200 individual medley champion, Canadian Finlay Knox with both swimmers clocking 52.04.
Le Clos took the title in Budapest in 2013 and Kazan in 2015, winning bronze in 2019.
There is just 1.10 seconds separating the top 16.
And there is a serious likelihood that a new champion could be crowned in the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay final with nine-time winners, the USA scraping into the final in lane eight and three-time winners Great Britain the sixth fastest qualifying team – but there is less than four seconds separating top qualifier China (7:06.93) and eighth qualifier the US (7:10.70), with Korea, Italy, Greece, Lithuania and Spain all vying for their first ever gold in this prestigious relay – first won by the US team of Kurt Krumpholz, Robin Backhaus, Richard Klatt and Jim Montgomery in Belgrade in 1973.
