2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- June 18-25, 2022 (pool swimming)
- Budapest, Hungary
- Duna Arena
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Farida Osman posted her fastest time in six years during Saturday’s 100-meter butterfly prelims on the first day of the 2022 FINA World Aquatics Championships, lowering her own Egyptian record to 57.76. Later in the semifinals, she clocked a 57.91 to make the 100 fly final for the first time in her career as the eighth seed.
Despite winning bronze medals in the 50 fly at the past two World Championships – in the process becoming the first African female and first Egyptian to ever reach the podium at the meet – Osman had missed making it out of the prelims in the 100 fly with a pair of 17th-place finishes in 2017 and 2019. An NCAA champion in the 100-yard fly at Cal in 2017, Osman moved training bases to Blacksburg, Virginia, where she worked in the build-up to the Tokyo Olympics with Spanish coach Sergio Lopez Miro. Their main goal was improving her 100 fly.
After placing 20th in the 100 fly at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, Osman didn’t return to the pool for a month. She returned to Cairo to enjoy the longest break she had ever taken from swimming, reconnecting with family and friends before eventually beginning to train again with Egyptian coach Sherif Habib, along with some virtual help from her coaches in the U.S.
The latest switch seems to be paying off for the 27-year-old. At short course Worlds in December, Osman registered a personal best in the 100 free with a 54.42. Osman tallied two runner-up finishes in the 50 fly during last month’s Mare Nostrum Tour, each time marking a season best. Now she’s got a new personal best in the 100 fly, more than a second faster than she was last month on the Mare Nostrum Tour and .07 faster than her previous best as a 21-year-old competing in the 2016 Olympics. It was her first personal best in any long course event since 2019.
“I just wanted to be home, especially after a really hard two years,” Osman told Arab News, adding that it was difficult to “recharge from being social” in Virginia, especially during the pandemic.
The relocation was reportedly part of a “pressure-free” approach that the former junior world champion attempted to bring to Worlds this year.
“I’m just doing this for myself,” Osman said back in December. “I know I can do so much better than what I did in Tokyo, so I feel like this is a way to prove to myself that it was a mishap and something just went wrong and it’s not like I’m no longer a good swimmer. So, this is something that I’m excited about.
“I’m taking this year to just focus on myself. I want to just swim for myself. I want to enjoy it again. I want to feel happy that I’m swimming again.”
Osman’s 57.76 was less than a tenth of a second from the African record set by South Africa’s Erin Gallagher in 2019.
National Records (Africa)
- Egypt: Farida Osman, women’s 100 fly – 57.76
- Previous record: Farida Osman – 57.83 from 2016