Sjostrom misses her own world mark by a whisker
budapest — Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom was surprised to narrowly miss her own world-record in becoming the first woman to win four golds in the women’s 100m butterfly on Monday at the world championships.
The 23-year-old clocked 55.53 seconds, a new championships record, just 0.05sec from her own world record set at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics last year.
She is the first reigning Olympic champion to add the world title in the event.
Australia’s Emma McKeon took silver at 0.65sec back with Kelsi Worrell of the United States taking bronze at 0.84.
Sjostrom broke the 100m freestyle record on Sunday, in the women’s 4x100m relay, when she became the first woman to swim under 52 seconds.
Her victory in Budapest mirrors her 2009 success as a 15-year-old when the world championships were held in Rome.
She failed to defend the 100m fly title in 2011 in Shanghai, but took gold at both the 2013 championships in Barcelona and two years ago in Kazan.
The Swedish sprinter admitted feeling jaded after her freestyle world record on Sunday, but had been eager to get back in the pool.
“I’m very happy with this gold, I didn’t know what to expect today, as I was a bit tired after four races yesterday on the first day,” she said.
“It was a bit hard to know what to expect, I was very excited before the race and I couldn’t wait to start. I felt like the last 10 minutes before the race were going on forever,” she joked.
Sjostrom admitted she had no idea she was so close to her own world record.
“I was very surprised to see I was so close to the world record,” she said. “It felt like I was going a bit slower than I did yesterday (in the freestyle relay), so maybe butterfly is about being relaxed then you can go even faster.
“With these times in the first 50 metres in the 100 fly I feel very excited for the 50 flys later this week and also for the 50 free.”
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu defended her women’s 200m individual medley title in front of her home crowd.
Hosszu clocked 2min 07.00sec to take the gold medal with Japan’s Yui Ohashi in silver at 0.91sec and Madisyn Cox of the United States earning bronze, 2.71sec behind.
Britain’s Adam Peaty failed to beat his own world record but was happy to defend the men’s 100m breaststroke title.
Peaty clocked a new championships record of 57.47 seconds with Kevin Cordes of the United States second at 1.32 back with Russia’s Kirill Prigoda third at 1.58.
The 22-year-old was delighted to defend the world title he first won in Kazan two years ago with plenty of support from the Budapest crowd.
“A lot of hard work goes into competing and the crowd were amazing, I want to thank everyone out there,” Peaty said after his win. “It was incredible, when I walked out I felt like I was in Britain, as everyone was cheering for me so much.”
Peaty had targeted his own world record of 57.13, set when he won the Olympic title last year in Rio de Janeiro, but came up short in his bid. “I need to have a few more 57 lows to get down to 56, but I’m just going to follow that curve now and see where it goes,” he added.
Britain’s Ben Proud won the men’s 50m butterfly gold at the world aquatic championships on Monday. Proud, 22, clocked 22.75 seconds in the sprint event with Brazil’s Nicholas Santos second at 0.04 secs back while Andrii Govorov of Ukraine took bronze at 0.09 in a tight finish. —