Gwangju (South Korea) (AFP)
Becoming the fastest swimmer in history on the 100m out of combinations the day before, Caeleb Dressel pushed a new frontier by offering his first world record, the 100m butterfly, previously owned by Michael Phelps, World Championships, Friday in Gwangju (South Korea).
Even when the dives are linked, Dressel does not belittle his rituals. Twice in the space of half an hour Friday evening, already twice in less than an hour in the morning, the American sprinter squatted to recite his prayer, his indispensable blue bandana tight against his glasses, hand posed on his starting block.
It must be said that it succeeds him.
From the semifinals of the 100 m butterfly, the 22-year-old Floridian took the world record that belonged to the huge Phelps for almost ten years (August 2009, at the time of the supersonic combinations). And hands down: 49 sec 82, he lowered it to 49 sec 50. And relegated his closest pursuer to almost a second and a half!
- Emu, for once -
This, for the first time, has obviously had the power to move him, he that his victories shovel do not seem to upset usually.
"To leave my mark, to simply live this moment where I can say that I was the best at some point in the history of swimming, it's really very special, I'm just the kid of a small town, it's crazy how far sport can carry you, "smiled Dressel, who became the day before the first swimmer to go under 47 seconds out of 100m off combinations.
Thirty minutes later, he dominated this time the semi-finals of the 50 m, in 21 sec 18. At three hundredths of his personal best, and only seven of the fastest time in history out of combinations (Proud in 2018).
In search of a new global septuplé - a feat only achieved by Phelps (2007) before he matches it in 2017 - Dressel, who has collected three world gold medals in the Korean pool for the moment (50 m butterfly, 100 m and 4x100 m gentlemen), will dive in grandissime favorite finals of these two races Saturday.
Mehdy Metella will take part in the 100 m butterfly, in the skin of the second best world performer of the season (50.85): unlike the 100 m, the Guyanese 27 years passed the cut of the semifinals, with the sixth time ( 51.62), despite sensations "not at all".
"It's monstrous what he's doing." "At the exit of the casting, I did not see him anymore," he says about Dressel.
The latter animated a first half of evening in the strong American accent.
- Mid-American, half-Russian evening -
Around her races, Simone Manuel first retained the crown of the 100 m in 52 sec 04, third fastest time in history, ahead of Australia's Cate Campbell and Sweden's Sarah Sjöström. Manuel is definitely fond of prestigious appointments: she has now imposed her law on the last three major finals of the queen race, at the 2016 Olympics (tied with Oleksiak), in Budapest two years ago and in Gwangju on Friday. . Then the youngest Regan Smith, 17, smashed the world record of the 200 backstroke in the semi-finals by more than seven tenths (2: 03.35 vs. 2: 04.06).
A second Russian-dominated game was answered with three straight titles: the first with Yuliya Efimova on the 200-meter breaststroke (2: 20.17), the second with Evgeny Rylov on the 200-meter backstroke (1: 53.40), and the third with Anton Chupkov on 200 breaststroke, with a world record to top it all (2: 06.12 against 2: 06.67).
French side, besides Metella, Marie Wattel (22 years) will also swim a final on Saturday, that of the 50 butterfly, five days after its first ever world final, on 100 m butterfly (8th). It is permissible to dream for the one who trains since the summer 2017 in Loughborough, England: she signed the third time of the semifinals, personal record planed of more than thirty hundredths (25.56 against 25.90) and record of France lowered by seven.
At the end of the evening, the last dive of Sun Yang has been without eddy: last runner of the Chinese 4x200, he hit the wall in sixth position. In the water - but in the water only - end of the soap opera around the triple Olympic champion surrounded by suspicions of doping.
© 2019 AFP