F-Teamers take on the world in Budapest
It was a massive eight days of competition for the world’s best swimmers at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest. Eight of our F-Teamers, including Lewis Clareburt with his gutsy individual efforts and relay swims from Jacob Whittle and Isaac Cooper, fought hard to contribute to their countries' medal tally.
Lewis Clareburt, one of the world’s best medley swimmers, had a tough lead-up to these Championships having battled COVID only a few weeks before the meet began. Frenchman Leon Marchand was the talk of the pool on opening night, as he broke the European Record in the Men’s 400m IM (4:04.28), narrowly missing Michael Phelps’s 2008 mark of 4:03.84. New Zealander Clareburt (4th in 4:10.98) was deep in the action, however, and just ahead of fellow F-Teamer Brendon Smith (5th in 4:11.36). Lewis also swam his way to the Men’s 200m IM final (1:58.11) to place 7th.
Jacob Whittle and Team GB were a force in the Men’s Relay events. Off the back of his individual semi-final berth in the Men’s 100m Freestyle (12th in 48.19), the young gun was the second swimmer in the Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Final. The Brits were just outside the time that won them their heroic gold medal in Tokyo, and earned themselves a bronze medal. Whittle and Team GB were also just outside the medals (4th) in the Men’s 4 x 100m Freestyle, clocking 3:11.14 to break the British record.
Australian sprint sensation Isaac Cooper was a critical member of the Aussie relays in Budapest, claiming a silver and adding some individual finals to his already impressive resume. Isaac was the backstroke lead-off (53.77) in the heats of the Mixed 4 x 100m Medley Relay helping the team earn silver (3:41.34) behind a dominant USA (3:38.79) in the final.
Cooper also lead off the Men’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay team, who were narrowly touched-out by Team GB for the bronze. Isaac was 12th in the Men’s 100m Backstroke semis, behind Italian Thomas Ceccon who displayed a brilliant 51.60 to break the World Record in the final. Cooper stepped up his individual performances in the Men’s 50m Backstroke, making the final to finish 8th in the world (24.76).
Fellow Aussie Brendon Smith threw his hat in the ring for the Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay heats. Smith lead off the Dolphins in 1:49.15 in the preliminaries, and his teammates stepped up to claim silver in the final off the back of a brilliant comeback swim by Zac Incerti, who swam a disappointing individual event earlier in the meet due to illness, but returned to his top speed with a 1:45 swim along with Olympic Gold Medalist Mack Horton. Australia finished second in the medal tally behind the US.
Syrian Ayman Kelzieh is another F-Teamer who added to the record books in Budapest. Ayman broke his own National Record from the 2019 Singaporean Championships in the Men’s 50m Butterfly, to lower the mark from 25.24 to 25.04. Ukrainian World Record holder Andrii Govorov clocked 23.31 in the same event to earn a semi-finals berth.
After an entertaining 8 days in Hungary our athletes now turn their attention to the European Championships, Commonwealth Games and other big international meets to continue what has been an exciting first half of 2022.