Among Day 6 Quotes: “I Wasn’t Expecting That,” Says Russia’s Chupkov

2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, July 23rd – Sunday, July 30th
• Budapest, Hungary
• LCM (50m)
• Full Competition Schedule
• Meet Info
• Psych Sheets
• Omega Results
• Pick ’em Contest
• Event-by-Event Previews

Each and every swim during tonight’s finals session in Budapest was filled with high-octane performances from athletes around the world. We saw a few medal-grabbing surprises, but also saw the veteran swimmers of the field do what the do best and secure lanes for the penultimate day of racing tomorrow.

Hear what select megastars had to say post-race tonight, with quotes-as-written courtesy of FINA.

Women’s 100 Free FINAL

• Simone Manuel, 52.27, USA, GOLD – “I just wanted to follow my race plan, a comfortable, fast first 50m. My back(swim) was really good at the relay and in the semi, so I had a lots of confidence in the last 50m. I feel really good, I had lots of pressure after the Olympic gold,  but I can managed to do it, so I’m happy. The last 2-3 meters was tough, my leg was burning, but I had to dig really deep and try to get my hand on the wall first.”
• Sarah Sjostrom 52.31, SWE, SILVER – “I am sorry about missing out on victory. I expected that Manuel would do a very fast sprint at the end, but her performance was superhuman, really. On the other hand I didn’t expect my final sprint would be so weak. I am angry with myself, I did it wrong, I am rather disappointed. At least my performance in the 50m butterfly semi-final is promising. “

Men’s 200 Back FINAL

• Evgeny Rylov, 1:53.61, RUS, GOLD – “Right after the race I feel rather bad. I am terribly exhausted; I gave it all really. I planned to have a strong start off and aim at keeping my advantage all throughout. I managed to do, yet the last 20 metres were extremely hard. I saw others were following me closely and I was afraid they would be faster than me. This is my first world title; I am absolutely happy about it yet I am tired pretty much. In fact I made it to the final with the 3rd best time only, but I did my best to pull myself together, luckily I could do so. I would like to clinch some more medals, but we will see, off for a rest now for sure.”
• Ryan Murphy, 1:54.21 USA, SILVER – “I’m a competitor, so yes, I wanted to win. We were really close to each other, he is pretty young, he is just keep on getting better, year over year. I hope I will be able to stay with him. Definitely it is a big disappointment. I want to be a guy who wins the race, I don’t want to be the guy who has the best time in the world. It’s a long way to 2020, and I want to make sure that I will be on the top.”
• Jacob Pebley 1:55.06, USA BRONZE – “It’s kind of bitter-sweet, obviously the time… slower final, but I expected this. I know I was slower, I had a big pain in my back last night, so I needed to be smarter. I had a lots of frustration from last year, so I wanted to finish in the top three.”

Men’s 100 Fly SEMIFINAL

• Kristof Milak, 50.77, HUN, 3rd seed – “I have no clue how I made it. I am happy to hear that even Cseh was glad about me breaking his national record. I hope I will be able to perform my strong dive in tomorrow as well. This time last year my personal best was 2 seconds slower so I am surprised pretty much about this result now. I must admit I have become rather exhausted, but I hope I have some more reserves to utilize. There is a lot to improve from the beginning till the end of my swim. I guess victory will require a time result below 50, which is, quite frankly, beyond me, but after all anything could happen.”
• Laszlo Cseh 51.16, HUN, 6th seed – “I am happy I did better now than in the morning. However, my national record has been breached,  the standard is set higher now so we’ll have to go for more. In my opinion Kristóf did an excellent job. You could see his start is way better than mine.  This is something I need to improve, I mean the beginning of the start, then my performance will be faster for sure. Now it is not youngsters trying to catch up with us but the other way round. My coach and I agreed that I wouldn’t put all my power in the first 50m but I save energy for the final leg, this is my weapon. Now unfortunately feel that the first 50m is not 100% worked out, this is space for improvement for the upcoming period. I am not sad, on the contrary, I am glad my record has been breached. I will aim at retaining it, we will see if I manage to do so. It has been a long time since the butterfly final saw such two brilliant Hungarian swimmers as today. “

Women’s 200 Breast FINAL

• Yuliya Efimova 2:19.64, RUS, GOLD – “My strategy has not changed. As usual, I started off relaxed, I accelerated in the third leg and I gave it all in the fourth one. I paid attention from the beginning not to get behind too much. I didn’t know I was doing such a good time and I didn’t really care about it, my only focus was the race. I didn’t prepare specifically for any of the rivals and I didn’t even see the others. Things changed after the relay yesterday. If I don’t win, it is my own mistake, no-one to be blamed. I am really happy about this medal and the world title, but I wasn’t stressed about it before the race. The field was rather tough, I shall keep on working hard to keep my position. Many thanks to my coach, this gold is for him, as well.”
• Bethany Galat, 2:21.77, USA, SILVER – “I was enjoying every second. Representing America is very special. I’m on fire and contagious. To be honest everything was happening so fast, I can’t dismiss any second, I’m enjoying the rest of my time with my family. The pain doesn’t really matter, I was always worried about the pain. It was exciting. I tried to clash my nerves and just focus on race. The crowd was incredible. I could hear them and I could use their energy.”

Men’s 200 Breast FINAL

• Anton Chupkov, 2:06.96, RUS, GOLD – “I am really happy. I worked very hard, many thanks to my coach. I wanted to do a good time, I wasn’t expecting such a great one. Watanabe and Koseki are my friends, they are really strong rivals. Girls have claimed a medal already, now at last Russian men have one, too, and this time it is a gold.”
• Yasuhiro Koseki, 2:07.29, JPN, SILVER – “In this heat today I managed to do my best. I am particularly happy that both of us could stand on the podium. I started speeding at 125m so that I would be in a good position for the final 25m sprint. Compared to Rio I believe the standard has increased significantly, which is underlined by the fact that the Russian winner could go below 2:07. No question, the pace has become much faster. Watanabe and I entered the final hoping to stand on the podium together. Obviously we would have been happier with the two shiniest medals but I feel we could meet our own expectations. “
• Ippei Watanabe, 2:07.47, JPN, BRONZE – “I am truly happy about this bronze. Especially because this way Yasuhiro and I could now demonstrate that swimming is Japan has been revived. We knew Chupkov would be extremely fast in the last 50m and if the results depended on that section we would be in serious trouble. Thus I aimed at gaining advantage by 150m, but I didn’t manage to do so hence the Russian victory. The winning time result at the Rio Olympics was 2:07.47. I did the same time now and it was enough only for the bronze because Chupkov went below 2:07. It clearly shows that the standard at international tournaments is increasing. For me this is a lesson learnt, I need to do better in the future.”

Men’s 4×200 Free Relay FINAL

• Stephen Milne of GBR, GOLD – “This is my first gold at the World Championships, it is fantastic that we could beat team US and Russia as well. We are grateful for James Guy, he did an excellent final sprint and I am happy about my contribution to victory, as well.”
• Aleksandr Krasnykh of RUS, SILVER – “I am a bit disappointed. In fact I did see that Guy was coming really fast but I couldn’t do any more. Prior to the race I would have settled with a silver yet now that the opportunity presented itself and it was so close, I am a bit sad about it.”
• Townley Haas of USA, BRONZE – “Zane held on as long as he could. I think James Guy’s split was 43’8, so there’s not much you can do about that.  We all fought hard, came out with a bronze medal. We all did the best we could and we are happy with the result.”