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World Championships: Sarah Sjostrom Speeds Way to Top Seed in Prelims of 50 Freestyle
Forced to play a waiting game through the first half of the World Championships, Sarah Sjostrom has been a lot busier over the past few days. That increase in activity included the preliminaries of the 50-meter freestyle on Friday morning, where the Swedish star managed the fastest time. Sjostrom cruised through her lap in 24.40, which was slightly quicker than the 24.45 delivered by Poland’s Kasia Wasick.
The world champion in the 50 freestyle in 2017, when the competition was also at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Sjostrom picked up bronze in the event in 2015 and was the silver medalist at the 2019 World Champs in South Korea. Ahead of this year’s edition of the meet, Sjostrom put together several strong performances that established her as the favorite for gold.
Sjostrom earned a silver medal in the 100 freestyle on Thursday and will see double duty during Friday’s evening session. Aside from racing the semifinals of the 50 freestyle, Sjostrom will go for gold in the 50 butterfly. The events are separated by a mere 15 minutes, with the final of the men’s 50 freestyle the only event in between.
Australian Meg Harris (24.68) and the United States’ Erika Brown (24.71) advanced to the semifinals as the third and fourth seeds, respectively, while China’s Zhang Yufei went 24.81 for the fifth position.
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