Fratus Clocks 100th 21-Point LCM 50 Free of His Career (Day 6 S. America Recap)

2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• June 18-25, 2022 (pool swimming)
• Budapest, Hungary
• Duna Arena
• LCM (50-meter format)
• Full Aquatics Schedule
• How To Watch
• Psych Sheets
• Meet Central
• Live Results
• Day 6 Finals Heat Sheets

One of the moments we’ve been most highly anticipating at these World Championships came earlier than expected. Exactly one week before his 33rd birthday, Brazilian superstar veteran Bruno Fratus competed in a swim-off of the men’s 50 free tonight following the semifinals of the event, posting a 21.62.

Unfortunately, despite the quick time, which would have been 3rd in semifinal, Fratus touched 0.03 seconds behind France’s Maxime Grousset, and therefore, will not be competing in tomorrow’s final. The swim was, however, Fratus’ 100th sub-22 seconds LCM 50 free of his career, marking the most of such swims by any swimmer in history – and it’s not even close.

Although Fratus just won his first Olympic medal last summer in Tokyo, he’s been as good a model of consistency as we’ve ever seen in this sport.  He’s swum at least one 21-point LCM 50 free every year since 2009, which is easily the longest of any such streak. Fratus is the 2x defending World Champs Silver medalist in the 50 free, having taken 2nd in both 2017 and 2019. He earned Bronze in the event at the 2015 World Champs on Kazan.

The table below shows all 100 of Fratus’ 21-point 50 freestyles in his career, listed in chronological order starting with his first sub-22 at the 2009 Brazilian Nationals, all the way up through his 21. in the swim-off at tonight’s finals session of the World Championships. A huge thanks to SwimSwam/Swimming Stats’ Daniel Takata and coach Alex Pussieldi for helping to compile and verify this data.

Also on Day 6, Brazil broke the Brazilian and South American Records in finals of the men’s 4×200 free relay. The squad of Fernando Scheffer (1:45.22), Vini Assuncao (1:46.44), Murilo Sartori (1:46.34), and Breno Correia (1:46.39) teamed up for a 7:04.69, finishing 4th, just 0.69 seconds off the podium. Scheffer, the Bronze medalist in the 200 free at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, had the 2nd fastest lead-off split in the field, behind only South Korea’s Hwang Sunwoo.

South American Medal Table Through Day 3

South American National Records Through Day 3

• Guilherme Costa broke his own Brazilian and South American records in the 400 freestyle with a 3:44.52 during prelims to take out his 3:45.85 from 2021. He then lowered that time to a 3:43.31 during finals, winning bronze.
• Guilherme Costa broke another South American record in the 800 freestyle, hitting a 7:45.48 to lower it from the 7:46.09 he set at Tokyo 2020.