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Proud Surprises Stacked 50 Fly Field To Earn Gold In British Record

2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Amidst a stacked field including 100m butterfly Olympic champion Joseph Schooling and newly-minted 50m butterfly American record holder Caeleb Dressel, 22-year-old Ben Proud kept his head down and his stroke strong to nail gold in the men’s fly splash n’ dash. Lurking as the 4th place swimmer after both heats and semi-finals clocking respective times of 23.11 and 22.92, Proud fired off a mighty 22.75 to take the top prize tonight in a new 50 fly British national record.

His time tonight knocks .05 off his own previous British record of 22.80 set at the British Championships this past April. At that meet, Proud had said his 50m fly strategy entailed taking just one breath near the closing flags of the race, after nailing a superb dive, underwater dolphin kicks and breakout. Those tactics paid off for the Energy Standard swimmer tonight, clearing race favorite and #1 seeded swimmer Nicholas Santos of Brazil, who touched just .04 behind in 22.79 for silver. Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov earned bronze in 22.84.

For Proud, the Brit now ranks as the 7th-fastest 50m fly performer of all-time.

1. Rafael Munoz 22.43
2. Nicholas Santos 22.51
3. Milorad Cavic 22.67
4. Andrii Govorov 22.69
5. Henrique Martins 22.70
6. Matt Targett 22.73
7. Ben Proud 22.75

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Bob
7 years ago

Apparently Dressel trying to put Proud off before the race, unlucky yank. Go TEAM GB!!!

ellie
7 years ago

lol. Crooked Donald’s clean water theory worked very well.☺

rjcid
7 years ago

DUDE… he is jacked… like when did swimmers look like crossfit athletes lol

Swimmer?
7 years ago

It didn’t seem like Dressel got the start he usually did. Oh well, still has a classy 22.76 for his PB and a lot more chances to get gold.

jelly
Reply to  Swimmer?
7 years ago

neither did Schooling. Both their reaction times are usually 0.62 or lower, and usually 0.61 for Schooling, but today it seemed both had relatively slow reactions, with 0.63 from Schooling and 0.64 from Dressel

Mr. Nice Guy
7 years ago

The report has it that Schooling went 22.39 just 10 minutes after the final in the practise pool from the push

SprintDude9000
Reply to  Mr. Nice Guy
7 years ago

Literally laughed out loud!

Breaststroker
7 years ago

Cavic’s 100 fly split from Rome 2009 should be still be amongthe top 10 50 fly times then he would play the piano like Beethoven

murica
7 years ago

Weird teeth and a weird tit

lilaswimmer
Reply to  murica
7 years ago

great body, not so his face.

BritsOnTheRise
7 years ago

I don’t think that’s surprising at all. He came into Worlds ranked second. Simply suprised cause Dressel didn’t make it.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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