Mehdy Metella of France broke Clement Lefert’s 100m butterfly national record Saturday night during finals in order to touch fifth in his best major international showing in the event to date.
Metella swam a 51.24 to take 0.18 seconds off his own 51.39 from semifinals.
Metella’s national record splits
- 50m – 24.05
- 100m – 51.24 (27.19)
Turning sixth at the first 50 wall, Metella managed to pass Li Zhuhao of China in order to move up one placement as he finished the race. He was right in the mix until the very end, finishing just 0.28 seconds out of a podium position.
Tonight’s final was once of the fastest 100m butterfly finals ever in the textile era. Prior to this race, only Phelps and Cseh had broken 51-seconds in the 100m butterfly since the suited 2009 World Championships in Rome.
Here in 2015, all three medallists were under 51-seconds and all three set new national records.
Both Tom Shield of the United States (51.08) and Metella dropped times that would have medalled at the 2012 Olympic Games.
In fact, Metella’s time from tonight would have medalled in every other 100m butterfly world Championship final ever excluding the 2009 final.
The time for Metella puts him in a great position to be one of the top butterfly swimmers heading into the 2016 Olympic Games.
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The best French swimmer for me since last year !!! great freestyler and now butterflyer .
Fortunately France has its Marseille big men.
Congrats Mehdy. Huge meet.
It will be though but a medal is possible in Rio.