Michael Andrew Lowers Hours-Old 50 Fly American Record

2018 FINA WORLD CUP – SINGAPORE

National team member Michael Andrew lowered his hours-old American Record in the men’s 50m butterfly while competing on day 3 of the 2018 FINA World Cup in Singapore.

This morning in prelims, the 19-year-old racer put up a time of 22.37, the fastest U.S. performance in history, to capture a new national record, as well as the top seed. The mark shaved .01 off of the previous American Record held by Olympian Tom Shields. Shields produced the 22.38 former standard at the 2016 Short Course World Championships in the semi-finals. The former Cal Bear ultimately earned silver in 22.40.

Andrew’s previous personal best rested at the 22.39 clocked just last week at the Tokyo stop of this series.

Tonight, however, the Race Pace Club athlete busted out an even quicker 22.32 to take silver in the 50m fly final behind Russia’s Vlad Morozov. In doing so, MA shaved .05 off of that morning American Record and now his performance now positions the star as the 14th fastest performer of all time.

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Bayliss
5 years ago

I don’t get why US swimmers aren’t competing in these circuits. A sport where people only show up once a year to compete at their best is not going to gain a following. I think the circuit has exactly the right idea in terms of timing. Have a season in Fall to compete fast in major metropolitan areas across the world. In December big meet, a final exam, double prizes and grand prizes. Winters/Spring off for training and recoup. Then summer is big championship season.

The American guard is preventing this sport from taking a positive turn. Personally I think it would be good for athletes to take a break, race, travel, see the world, train with different athletes… Read more »

Teddy
5 years ago

Dressel, MA, and Vlad doing the circuit together would be so fun to watch. Wonder If It’ll happen

sven
Reply to  Teddy
5 years ago

Doubt Dressel will ever do a full World Cup while training at Florida. My guess is they prefer their swimmers at home grinding until taper time instead.

jay
5 years ago

While this is the World Cup, I am unsure about the stakes of these meets. Does it really matter if you win here or in World champs when it really counts?

Admin
Reply to  jay
5 years ago

Steve is being a little tongue-in-cheek. But, to answer your question as asked, for pro swimmers, winning anywhere is important for sponsors, which is the life-blood of most pro athletes. There’s also a ton of money on the line. There’s big cluster bonuses ($50,000 for 1st in a cluster down to $3,000 for 8th in a cluster), and winning a race vs. 2nd place is a $500 upgrade. Over many events and many meets, that becomes a significant amount of money.

Brownish
Reply to  Braden Keith
5 years ago

Efimova could lose 38,5 K (1+12,5+25) in some hundreds of a second.

Yozhik
Reply to  Braden Keith
5 years ago

You are wrong now.

Brownish
Reply to  Yozhik
5 years ago

You’re right, it was 61K altogether.

DMacNCheez
5 years ago

In before this goes over everyone’s head

Alo
5 years ago

Vlad just owns MA

Philip
Reply to  Alo
5 years ago

Yes, for now. But remember, Vlad is the 26-year-old veteran. Vlad is a beast, but MA will be up there in the upcoming years.

Swimmy
Reply to  Philip
5 years ago

MA is also taller and has a harder time on open turns than the shorter Morozov

Teddy
Reply to  Alo
5 years ago

Vlad is the perfect rabbit for MA. This is going to help him get a lot faster. Basically his first USRT training partner

Paul Hayes
Reply to  Alo
5 years ago

Competing against someone better than you is one of the best ways to learn and improve. If I were in MAs shoes I’d race Vlad as much as possible and talk to him about racing and sprint training and be working as hard as possible to beat him. Also it’s not like silver medals don’t get paid here

sven
Reply to  Paul Hayes
5 years ago

I heard that all second place gets you is some steak knives.

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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