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World Championships: Justin Ress, Hunter Armstrong Take Top Two Seeds in 50 Backstroke Semis
The USA continued its strong backstroke performance heading into the finals of the 50 backstroke.
In the semifinals, Justin Ress and Hunter Armstrong finished with the top to spots and just two hundredths of a second apart, to lead the field heading into the finals.
USA’s Ryan Murphy won the 200 backstroke and the USA sprinters are looking to add to the haul at the World Championships.
Ress touched the wall in 24.14, just ahead of Armstrong (24.16). Armstrong is the world record holder in the event at 23.71, set at the U.S. International Team Trials earlier this year.
Greece’s Apostolos Christou took the third seed in 24.39, followed by Italy’s Thomas Ceccon (24.46), Poland’s Ksawery Masiuk (24.48), Romania’s Robert Glinta (24.54), Australia’s Isaac Cooper (24.60) and Germany’s Ole Braunschweig (24.61) rounding out the finalists at the World Championships.
In prelims, Ress went 24.24 with Braunschweig (24.58) and Ceccon (24.62) – who set a world record of 51.60 en-route to the 100 back title on Monday – next heading into the semis, where Ress continued to be the top of the group.
No matter what happens, t will be an entirely new podium in Budapest with 2019 champion Zane Waddell not competing and silver and bronze medalists Evgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov as part of the Russian ban.
