2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Live Results (Omega)
American Blake Pieroni rocketed off the blocks in the men’s 200m freestyle final and never looked back, leading the field wire-to-wire to take the title of World Champion…in lane 8, no less! The former Indiana Hoosier split 48.47/53.02 to slam the wall in a winning effort of 1:41.49.
That checks-in as Pieroni’s 2nd fastest outing of his career, sitting just .34 behind the 1:41.15 the 23-year-old registered at the World Cup Singapore last month. In that personal best, Pieroni opened much more casually, posting an opening 100m of 49.12, but closed much quicker in 52.03.
Nevertheless, Pieroni’s strategy tonight in Hangzhou was enough to hold off a raging Danas Rapsys of Lithuania, who closed in 52.25 to finish less than .3 behind Pieroni for silver in 1:41.78. Australia’s Alexander Graham touched in 1:42.28 for 3rd tonight.
Pieroni already collected a World Record in Hangzhou, splitting 45.75 as the 2nd leg on yesterday’s men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. He will be contesting the men’s 100m freestyle later on in the meet.
Watch Pieroni’s outside smoke in the video below, courtesy of Alex Muni.
Mizuno has to be happy with their new signee. Congrats Blake!
Is it just me, or do it seem like Pieroni’s turns could be better?
Zero underwaters. Like Haas. Oh for the days of the Phelps-Lochte 200 free duals off the walls.
Not trying to give him an excuse, but he’s never gone that fast and most certainly never gone out at WR pace in the 200FR. Up until the 125 mark, he was ahead of WR pace. The onset of going out hard sunk in, maybe? When you ain’t got nothing left, it’s hard to go what isn’t there.
As much as I appreciate having video of these races i wish the quality was better. This looks like it was filmed with a toaster.
just enjoy
and a toaster would have burned the images …..lol😅
I know right? It’s 2018, not 2008!
That last 25 HURT. Love the look on his face after that race, showing this video at practice for sure. Throwing it all out there, congrats BP.
Been a big past few months for Blake, this is just a cherry on top. Good to see America at the top of the podium in the 200 free.
Great racing Blake! Congrats!