2019 FINA WORLD CUP #3 – SINGAPORE
- Thursday, August 15th – Saturday, August 17th
- OCBC Aquatic Centre, Singapore
- LCM
- SwimSwam Preview
- Entries
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Results
We knew Danas Rapsys had a 1:44 200m free in him, as the Lithuanian surged to the wall first at the 2019 World Championships with a clocking of 1:44.69. However, the 24-year-old was disqualified for a flinch at the start, leaving China’s Sun Yang to top the podium with his time of 1:44.93.
Rapsys rebounded with a gold medal-worthy performance at the 2nd stop of this 1st World Cup Series cluster, producing a time of 1:45.07 to notch a new Lithuanian National Record and World Cup standard. That time sliced .05 off of his previous personal best.
Flash forward to tonight, however, and Rapsys’ spark ignited big-time with a menacing 200m free time of 1:44.38 to crush the field in Singapore. Splitting 50.99/53.39, Rapsys produced the first sub-1:45 second time of his career to become the 6th fastest performer of all-time in the event.
Rapsys’ effort overtakes Sun’s PB of 1:44.39 from the 2017 World Championships to bump the Chinese superstar down to 7th, positioning Rapsys among the titans of Michael Phelps, Yannick Agnel and Ian Thorpe.
Additionally, Rapsys becomes just the 4th man since 2017 to clock a sub-1:45 second 200m free, along with Australia’s Clyde Lewis, Sun and Great Britain’s Duncan Scott.
All-Time Men’s 200m Free Performers
| #1-1:42.00 | Paul Biedermann | GER | 2009 World Champs | 7/28/2009 | Rome |
| #2-1:42.96 | Michael Phelps | USA | 2008 Olympic Games | 8/13/2008 | Beijing |
| #3-1:43.14 | Yannick Agnel | FRA | 2012 Olympic Games | 7/28/2012 | London |
| #4-1:43.90 | Danila Izotov | RUS | 2009 World Champs | 7/30/2009 | Rome |
| #5-1:44.06 | Ian Thorpe | AUS | 2001 World Champs | 7/25/2001 | Fukuoka |
| #6-1:44.38 | Danas Rapsys | LTU | 2019 World Cup | 8/17/2019 | Singapore |
| #7-1:44.39 | Sun Yang | CHN | 7/25/2017 | Budapest |
1:44.06 was so ahead of its time in ’01
It Sun Yang sees him in a warm down pool, he might throwing a starting block at him
Who coaches him currently? Has he been abroad for training?
He has never changed his swimming coach (it’s always been this woman named Ina Paipaliene). He trains abroad a lot though.
Did he go to multiple nations such as Turkey, maybe the States?
I prefer the first title
Will that 1:42.00 mark ever go down?
At this rate, not anytime soon.
Lochte gonna break it next year
Yep. WRs are going to get a hell of a lot faster if the kids coming through these days are anything to go by.
We say that, but most of the elite 200free guys in the world are still getting stuck in the 1:45.0-1:45.5, which is over a second slower than Thorpe went almost 20 years ago.
Still my world champion
Dean Ferris
1:39.8
He’s winning the gold next year