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MEN’S 100 BREASTSTROKE
It was a battle early between Americans Cody Miller and Brendan McHugh and Brazilian Felipe Lima, but Miller used an outstanding turn to take over the lead and never gave it back. Miller nearly cracked his own lifetime-best in this race, going 59.92 for the runaway win. That’s just .01 off the time he went in winning nationals last summer.
Last summer’s 50 breast national champion, McHugh closed hard to take second over Lima, going 1:00.56, while the Brazilian fell off some and wound up third in 1:01.33.
Tennessee Aquatics pro Brad Craig was also 1:01 (1:01.63), as was former Japanese international powerhouse Kosuke Kitajima. Kitajima, who won back-to-back Olympic titles in both breaststroking distances and is certainly in the conversation for “Greatest Breaststroker of All Time,” was 1:01.84, going out just about half a second off the pace and never quite finding another gear to run down the top dogs.
Nicholas Quinn out of Ireland took sixth (1:03.17) in a very well-represented field internationally. Canadian Antoine Bujold out of Pointe-Claire was 1:03.25 and Russian Anton Lobanov 1:03.63 for 7th and 8th.