Iconic 50m freestyle barrier broken for first time as swimming world records tumble
Countless world records have been demolished at the world swimming champions as one man broke an iconic barrier for the first time.
Swimming
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The assault on short-course swimming world records continued on Sunday morning (AEDT) as Gretchen Walsh added two more to take her tally for the week to eight, while Jordan Crooks broke one record twice in the day and Summer McIntosh claimed a third and Noe Ponti a second mark of the week.
By the end of the fifth day of the World Championships in Budapest, 24 records had fallen. Each record brings a 25,000 dollar (23,800 euro) bonus cheque from World Aquatics.
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Swiss swimmer Ponti claimed his third title and second record of the week when he won the men’s 100m fly in 47.71 to shave 0.07sec of the record American Caleb Dressel sent in the same pool in 2020.
“Caleb is a legend of our sport,” said Ponti. “I always looked up to him, so it’s simply special, it’s special to know that I’m as fast as he was, and as he is.”
Canadian McIntosh then smashed the women’s 400 individual medley in 4 minutes 15.48 seconds, more than three seconds inside the 2017 mark of 4:18.94. by Spaniard Mireia Belmonte.
Jordan Crooks, representing the Cayman Islands, also broke a record set by Dressel in Budapest in 2020 in the 50m free and then broke it again for good measure.
Watch Crooks’ recordbreaking swim in the video above
“Happy to be here happy to have done it one time,” said Crooks. “So to break it a second time It’s something even cooler.”
Dressel’s mark was 20.16 and Crooks swum 20.08 in the morning heats and then became the first swimmer under 20 seconds in 19.90 in the evening semi-finals and then said he too was a Dressel fan.
“He was kind of the one that made swimming cool for me when I was younger and it was really the way he swam the way he went about competing I always found that quite fascinating,” said Crooks.
Walsh has been cleaning up - although one record was in an American relay team.
The 21-year-old American opened Saturday’s evening session by breaking the 100m butterfly world record for the second time in two days.
On Friday the morning the record was 54.05 seconds set by Canadian Maggie Mac Neil in 2022. In the heats, Walsh became the first woman under 54 seconds and then in the final the first under 53sec as she won in 52.71sec.
“It’s been harder and harder to get through these races, just because it’s been a really long meet,” said Walsh.
“To break it, on the butterfly, it’s something amazing, it’s crazy, and yeah, I’m really happy with it.”
Walsh returned to water less than an hour later to swim 22.87 in 50m freestyle semi-final to break the record of 22.93 set in 2017 by Dutch swimmer Ranomi Kromowidjojo.
“Next thing I’m going to do is celebrate and take a little break, and then in January I’m going to get back to training,” she said.
Originally published as Iconic 50m freestyle barrier broken for first time as swimming world records tumble
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