2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 13 to Sunday, December 18, 2022
- Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Melbourne, Australia
- SCM (25m)
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Two national records bit the dust in tonight’s 1500m freestyle final on day one of the 2022 FINA Short Course World Championships.
Behind winner Gregorio Paltrinieri‘s gold medal-winning time of 14:16.88, Frenchman Damien Joly powered his way to a new national record of 14:19.62 for silver.
The former French standard stood at the 14:23.44 David Aubry put up at the 2018 edition of this competition in Hangzhou, China. That rendered Aubry the 4th place finisher 4 years ago.
Entering this competition, Joly’s personal best in this SCM 1500 free rested at the 14:24.00 he logged for 5th place behind teammate Aubry in Hangzhou. More recently, Joly produced a time of 14:25.62 last year in Abu Dhabi to finish 6th in this event.
As such, tonight’s swim saw Joly hack well over 3 seconds from his former PB en route to snagging the silver. The 30-year-old now ranks as the 12th fastest performer all-time in this event, while tonight’s silver represents Joly’s first-ever World Championships medal.
Although landing off the podium in tonight’s race, Japanese freestyle ace Shogo Takeda also cracked a new national record. Producing a mark of 14:25.95, Takeda slid into the 4th place position in the final.
This marks just the 2nd time Takeda has dipped under the 14:30 threshold, with his previous Japanese national record standing at the 14:29.92 he logged just this past October at Short Course Nationals.
Takeda’s time this evening maintains his position as the 2nd fastest Asian man in history, with only South Korea’s Park Tae Hwan having been faster with the continental record of 14:15.51 from 2016.
Japan did not send an official roster to the 2021 FINA Short Course World Championships and there was zero men’s 1500m free representation 3 years before that in Hangzhou.
