Vlad Morozov Becomes Only 2nd Man Ever Under 45.0 In SCM 100 Free

2018 FINA WORLD CUP – SINGAPORE

Russia’s Vlad Morozov turned heads and blew minds when he produced the 2nd fastest short course meters 100 freestyle of all-time tonight in Singapore. Morozov became just the 2nd man ever to dip under the 45-second threshold by clocking a downright frightening time of 44.95 to take gold on day 2 of the 2018 FINA World Cup Series in Singapore.

After establishing himself as the top seed with a casual morning effort of 47.03, Morozov turned into an animal tonight to register splits of 21.34 (!!)/23.61 and produce a new Russian National Record and World Cup Record of 44.95. The previous World Cup Record stood at the 45.16 Morozov registered just days ago in Tokyo.

The only man faster than Morozov is the World Record holder Amaury Leveaux of France, who punched a 44.94 back in 2008. Morozov’s mark painstakingly fell just .01 shy of that WR to become the 2nd fastest performance in history.

Morozov’s time obviously tops the world rankings for this season and also handed the Russian a whopping 999 FINA performance points to further distance himself from the competition in the overall World Cup standings.

Also in tonight’s race were Kyle Chalmers of Australia and Blake Pieroni of America. Chalmers clocked 45.54 to come within hundredths of the Australian National Record, while Pieroni’s time of 46.26 missed legendary swimmer Ian Crocker’s National Record by just .01.

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Lpman
5 years ago

Why can’t this guy duplicate these kinds of results in lcm?

ITR
Reply to  Lpman
5 years ago

it’s insanely different. he has his moments there too though from time to time, at the last Russian nationals he swam a pretty good 100 free and it looked great too. like long, efficient strokes… was really interesting seeing that from him.

Samuel Huntington
Reply to  Lpman
5 years ago

He has split 46 LCM, one of the few to do it.

Samuel Huntington
5 years ago

That would def be 39 scy. And Chalmers is swimming really fast too

Coach Mike 1952
Reply to  Samuel Huntington
5 years ago

Hope Dressel is tapered & ready for the SC Worlds coming up. Awesome competition if so. That 100M WR would likely go, maybe 50 free too!

JVJ
Reply to  Samuel Huntington
5 years ago

All the conversion tools have it between 40.45 and 40.5. Although I don’t really think the conversion tools work well for short course to long course at the elite level because of the advancement of underwaters and turns (SW’s converter has it at 45.85 LCM!!), I think the SCY/SCM conversions are pretty accurate.

Hectable
Reply to  JVJ
5 years ago

Conversations don’t work at all its a personal thing. I’ve swam both SCY and SCM and based on experience I dont think the conversations factor in lost speed from the extra distance swimmers have to go per 25 I personally am not good at underwaters but my untapered scy time converts 2 seconds faster than my SCM time in the 100 (42 scy to 49 scm)

Caleb
Reply to  Samuel Huntington
5 years ago

no way… will bea fun race at SC Worlds, though. If Dressel is all in I think he could push breaking 44. Go ahead and call me crazy, but his 39.9 last year looked pretty tired. 39-mid should translate to a 44-very low.

Verram
5 years ago

Seems like a great night of racing.. I wonder if there’s any race videos available of this

Finlay Williamson
Reply to  Verram
5 years ago

Check out the youtube channel “Aquatics Sport”. They usually post all of the race videos within 24 hours

Verram
Reply to  Finlay Williamson
5 years ago

Thank you for the YouTube tip.. watched the race .. seemed exciting .. too bad Chalmers made himself unavailable for world sc champs to see if he could further improve his time

Old Man Chalmers
Reply to  Verram
5 years ago

Chalmers said he was targeting energy for swim. He just didn’t sign his contract before the meet was cancelled…

Sprintdude9000
Reply to  Verram
5 years ago

Yes somebody has uploaded the entire world cup series so far to YouTube

IM FAN
5 years ago

Morozov vs Dressel at SC Worlds….

It must suck to have missed the WR by .01 of a second.

Though Chalmers has Impressed me… I would not think someone like him would be swimming this fast in short course, and I’m excited for his 2019 season, looks like he’s back on track after his heart surgery.

Samboys
Reply to  IM FAN
5 years ago

Chalmers’ underwaters have definitely improved, not to the level of Morozov or Dressel but better than he was in 2016.

Tammy Touchpad Error
Reply to  Samboys
5 years ago

Man i remember seeing King Kyle at CWG in April and it looked like he wasnt even doing proper streamlines!!! Can’t wait to see SCWorlds. I hope all this competition is lighting a fire for Baeleb but he’s with Lochte so who knows what’s gonna happen.

sven
Reply to  IM FAN
5 years ago

There are several guys in the sprint freestyles right now who, on their own, would be considered once-in-a-generation talents. The depth and level of talent in the 50 and 100 make those events even more fun than usual to watch. Let’s just hope Manaudou* comes back and gets into full form, then the 50 will be the most insane final to watch in 2019 and 2020. Chalmers doing well in short course is a really good sign that he can challenge Dressel in the 100 the next few summers. I’m a bit partial to Dressel because ‘Merica but I will be thrilled to see anyone go a textile 46 in LCM. I really hope McEvoy can get there as well.… Read more »

Wong
Reply to  sven
5 years ago

Wasn’t Manadou’s plan to come back for Paris 2024 in front of a home crowd? At least that’s what I remember reading when the news broke about his break from swimming, I may be wrong. Though his recent appearances in smaller meets is encouraging. It really is impressive to see the depth of competition in the sprint free breaking barriers!

Togger
Reply to  sven
5 years ago

Agreed, good to see as well after what has been a slight period of stagnation, no offence to some fantastic swimmers over the past few years.

Chalmers’ 47.58 to win in Rio wasn’t that much quicker than VDH’s 47.84 (semi, admittedly) in Sydney, 16 years earlier, and the 100 has been slightly overshadowed by more big names in the 200 (2004 and 2012 were huge battles, 2008 had Phelps on his 8 golds run).

Ironically, probably the most gifted sprinter of the era didn’t swim for most of it, would have loved to see what a 22/23 year old, dialled in Ervin could have swum.

Old Man Chalmers
Reply to  Togger
5 years ago

iirc the men’s 200 free overshadowed the 100 free in athens. The 200 field had huge names like thorpe, van den hoogenband, phelps, hackett etc so it was highly anticipated.

Togger
Reply to  Old Man Chalmers
5 years ago

Yeah, Athens was 2004.

200 free was big in Sydney, because of Thorpe vs VDH, but so was the hundred (by the final Klim and VDH had both already broken the WR that meet).

Rush!
5 years ago

Isn’t US record Adrians 45 low, swam at some of the duels in the pool?

Wow
Reply to  Rush!
5 years ago

Occurred during the weird period of not accepting rubber suit records.

Tea rex
Reply to  Rush!
5 years ago

Yeah, it’s hard to believe:

a. crocker’s 100 free AR from ncaa ’04 outlasted his 100 fly AR from same meet.

b. That record still stands.

c. The gap between suited and non-suited AR is still over 1 second.

Conclusion: most Americans just don’t do short course meters. When was the last big scm meet even held in USA?

Superfan
Reply to  Tea rex
5 years ago

I agree but we do send a good team to World Short course Champs and the Duels in the Pool are sometimes SCM

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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