Russia’s Vladimir Morozov held his own today against USA’s Anthony Ervin in the 50 free swim off for lane 8 in finals, which was contested after the two sprint moguls tied for 8th place after semifinals. Morozov was quick, touching out Ervin with a time of 21.90 to Ervin’s 21.98. Take a look at how they compared from prelims to finals.
PRELIMS
Morozov – 21.97
Ervin – 22.44
SEMIS
Morozov – 22.02
Ervin – 22.02
SWIM-OFF
Morozov 21.90
Ervin 21.98
Ervin clearly coasted to some extent in the prelims of the 50 free (though it’s never easy to simply “coast” through a 50 sprint) and then put on the jets in prelims. He did have a nice swim in the swim-off, breaking 22 seconds. That was a season best by a long shot– before this meet, his best time of 2015 was a 22.43 from the Arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara. Ervin isn’t at his 2013 form– his best time ever is a 21.42 from the Barcelona World Champs– but he did match his time from 2000 at the Sydney Olympics, where he tied with Gary Hall, Jr. for gold. Apart from that American duo, no other swimmer broke 22 seconds at those Olympics.
Now in 2015 it took a sub-22 second performance just to make the World Champs final. Start lists show Morozov to have qualified with a 22.02, but it was really his 21.90 from the swim-off that got him into this final. The Russian star will have lane 8 in the final, and we mentioned earlier how his smaller frame will be able to handle disturbances in the pool better from an outside lane as opposed to the mayhem at the middle of the pool. The men’s 50 free final will take place in finals tomorrow night in Kazan, or 10:30 am ET.
GO RUSSIA! Thanks to USC and Southern California.
Bears are gonna get ya anyways 😛