2016 SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- December 6th – December 11th, 2016
- Windsor, Ontario, Canada
- WFCU Centre
- SCM (25m)
- Prelims: 9:30 AM EST/Finals: 6:30 PM EST
- Start Lists/Results
- Live Stream ($)
Lithuanian Simonas Bilis won an upset gold medal in the men’s 100 freestyle on the final night of swimming in Windsor, putting up a time of 46.58 to out-touch Japan’s Shinri Shioura by one one-hundredth.
Bilis noted that when ‘Vlad and all the fast guys’, speaking of Vladimir Morozov and Chad Le Clos, didn’t qualify for the semi-finals that he knew it was an opportunity of a lifetime and that he had to take advantage.
As reported by Lauren Neidigh:
MEN’S 100 FREE FINALS
- 2014 World Champion – 45.75: Cesar Cielo, BRA
- World Record – 44.94: Amaury Leveaux, FRA, 2008
- Championship Record – 45.51: Vladimir Morozov, 2014
GOLD: Simonas Bilis (LTU), 46.58
SILVER: Shinri Shioura (JPN), 46.59
BRONZE: Tommaso D’Orsogna (AUS), 46.70
The race for gold in the 100 free was just about as close as as they come, with Lithuania’s Simonas Bilis and Japan’s Shinri Shioura fighting to get a hand on the wall first. In the end, it was Bilis rocketing to the win, touching .01 ahead of Shioura, who set a new Asian Record for 2nd place. Taking 3rd was Australia’s Tommaso D’Orsogna, who pulled ahead of Team USA’s Blake Pieroni on the 2nd 50. Pieroni (46.88) was just off the podium at 4th.
And after further research, only the men’s 50 free had a sub 900 point performance as the winning time… which just goes to show that the top brass in the Men’s sprint events, either didnt show up, or didnt show up to swim fast…
I’ll back up the original post… yeah, it was opportunity of a lifetime… he won a world championship with a sub 900 FINA point total… Find me another event that won with an 800 for their point total…. congrats on the title, but damn that was relatively slow…
This really was the opportunity of a lifetime for Simonas, and really everyone in this final. He had the opportunity to swim in a final at world champs that was missing every single good 100 freestyler in the world. Congrats!! Oh wait, Park was in it, but he swam the 1500 right before. #getahaircut
What an awful comment. How dare you point out the truth! It’s not like people ever criticize outcomes in other sports! I’m going to downvote you for hurting my feelings even though I didn’t even swim that race!
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-do-you-comment-online/
Yeah, but three of the best were entered in the event and competed in it. So he beat them. It’s not like they skipped the meet. #getalife
The hate for NC State runs deep and crosses international lines. Great job Simi. GO PACK!!
Just a stupid comment. The ones present that had faster times, did not qualify for the final. Not Bilis’ fault. There are plenty of examples of people in sports supposedly better than everyone, that don’t win, for whatever reason. Celebrate it for the great accomplishment it is.
Valio valio valio! Lietuviai didžioujasi!