To FINA’s credit, they captured this interview. We forget sometimes that everyone starts their journey to success somewhere. Tevoedjre may have only gone a 1:07 100m free, but he has goals to go 1:00, and that’s something all swimmers can respect.
Whatever funk, illness, or whatever has plagued American Nathan Adrian through his first two swims in the Palau seems to have been shaken; he came out for this semi-final looking very focused and comfortable as he won heat 1 in 47.95. That puts him as the top overall seed. But his wasn’t even the best bounce-back story of these semi-finals.
Immediately afterward, Longhorn Aquatics’ Jimmy Feigen stepped onto the blocks and won heat 2 in 48.07 – the best swim he’s had of this meet after getting a lot of criticism for his performance on the men’s 400 free relay. The ability to channel his struggles into that sort of swim speaks well for his future as a professional athlete, where that sort of amnesia is a huge hallmark of success.
They weren’t the only two that recovered from poor prelims swims; Brazil’s Marcelo Chierighinibarely snuck into the 100 free semi-final as the 15th seed, but will be 3rd in the finals with a 48.11 behind Feigen.
Vlad Morozov and James Magnussen were matching 48.20′s, with Magnussen playing with fire a little bit after having easily taken the top swim in the morning. That means the four big favorites coming into the meet, plus Feigen, will hold center stage.
France’s Fabien Gilot, who was great in France’s 400 free relay victory, is the 6th seed in 48.21, followed by Australian Cameron McEvoy in 48.43 and Italy’s Luca Dotto in just 48.46. With the way this race came in seeded, nobody would have guesesd that a 48.46 would have final’ed, but alas it did.
That means Cuba’s Hanser Garcia, whose potential has so many swim fans in the western hemisphere excited, failed to advance to the finals with a 48.54 for 11th, as did the Netherlands’Sebastiaan Verschuren, who scratched the 200 free final earlier in the meet to focus on this event. Verschuren was tied for 13th in 48.73.
This is one of the few things I seem to agree with FINA about– I am glad that competitors like him are allowed to swim; it helps grow the sport internationally and foster good will among nations, even if you may not see the results for several decades or longer, and even then very gradually. I’ve been following international swimming since the early 1970’s and have seen this slow steady progress with many new nations added since then at the WC and Olympics, and then as they slowly move up the rankings, you see a few names bubble up higher in the rankings all the way to semi-finals and even occasionally finals.
On the other hand I can definitely… Read more »
uh I can respect that he has ambitions to go 1:00 min good for him, but doesn’t Fina have cut off times for these events??? I have a problem that there are world class competitors out there who would give anything to be at the world champs and someone can compete at this level with a 1:07… that said could not find the interview so don’t know the whole story behind it or if there is one.
I found out he is from Bénin / Afrika .
I wonder what ‘s his nationality with such a dutch name . South African ?