Editorial content for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships is sponsored by FINIS, a longtime partner of Swimming World and leading innovator of suits, goggles and equipment. World Championships, Day Six Prelims: Matt Temple Speeds to Top Time in 100 Butterfly There wasn’t much of a feeling-out atmosphere to the preliminaries of the 100-meter butterfly at the World Championships on Friday morning. Three athletes broke the 51-second barrier during the morning session, headlined by Matt Temple of Australia. Temple delivered a swim of 50.76 in his heat, which was good for a .02 margin over the Netherlands’ Nyls Korstanje (50.78). Also going sub-51 was Canadian Joshua Liendo, who won the last of eight heats in 50.98. Liendo entered the competition as the slight favorite, thanks to a personal best of 50.36. Tying for fourth and fifth at 51.00 were Frenchman Maxime Grousset and Switzerland’s Noe Ponti. Grousset has already won bronze medals in the 100 freestyle and 50 butterfly. The United States’ Dare Rose (51.17) and Canadian Ilya Kharun (51.33) were sixth and seventh. There was a tie for the 16th spot in the semifinals between Great Britain’s Jacob Peters and American 16-year-old Thomas Heilman. Peters and Heilman both touched in 51.77, necessitating a swimoff at the send of the morning session. Peters won the swimoff in 51.39, with Heilman at 51.66. The event is missing its reigning world and Olympic champions in Hungarian Kristof Milak and American Caeleb Dressel. Milak announced last month that he was withdrawing from the meet to tend to mental and physical exhaustion, while Dressel missed qualifying at the United States Trials. Dressel raced at Trials with minimal training after taking a sabbatical from the sport for his mental health.
