Swimming World Championships

Bucher fifth in 100 m dolphin, Gigler crawl 14th

Simon Bucher

(Bild: GEPA)

The Tyrolean Simon Bucher finished fifth in the final of the 100 m dolphin at the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest on Saturday!

In 49.19 seconds, the 24-year-old missed his Austrian record by 0.17 seconds, but was a tenth faster than in the semi-final the previous evening. Bucher missed out on the medals by 0.48 seconds. In the 50 m crawl, Heiko Gigler pushed his OSV record by 0.06 seconds in the preliminary heat and by a further 0.13 seconds in the semi-final to 21.06 seconds, which resulted in 14th place in the final. After a rather mixed title competition for him, Bucher was reconciled with the World Championships: "Things improved over the course of the week. I wasn't so happy at the beginning, but that's how you can finish the World Championships."

Gigler only missed out on eighth place and thus the final by 0.26 seconds in a tightly bunched field. "The competition is incredible and the density is stronger than ever." The 28-year-old has three final sessions under his belt, including sixth place in the 100m medley, as well as four ÖSV records. "I'm really enjoying swimming at the moment. That's what gives me a kick." Lena Kreundl ended her career on Saturday morning with 42nd place in the 50 m crawl. The 27-year-old will now concentrate on her job as a police officer. Gigler and Bernhard Reitshammer were eliminated in the 50m breaststroke in the morning with 26.34 each and 20th place.

More world records on the assembly line
Gold in the men's 100 m dolphin went to Noe Ponti in 47.71 seconds, the Swiss improved the more than four-year-old world record of Calaeb Dressel (USA) by 0.07 seconds. Before that, Gretchen Walsh had also set a world record in the 100 m dolphin. The US-American won gold in 52.71 seconds, she had also won the preliminary heat and semi-final in world record time. Until Friday morning, the world record had been 54.05 seconds.

In the 50m crawl semi-final, Walsh also beat the world record set by Ranomi Kromowidjojo from the Netherlands in 2017 by 0.06 seconds; the new record is 22.87. It was also Ponti's third world record this week. Summer McIntosh also doubled her time and set the 22nd world record of these championships. Following her world record in the 400m crawl on Tuesday, the Canadian won the 400m medley in 4:15.48 minutes, beating the previous top mark set by Spain's Mireia Belmonte Garcia in 2017 by 3.46 seconds.

Crooks broke the 20-second barrier in the crawl sprint
Jordan Crooks from the Cayman Islands had already improved Dressel's previous world record from November 2020 by 0.08 seconds in the preliminary heats over 50 m crawl in 20.08. In the semi-finals, the 22-year-old also broke the 20-second barrier, clocking 19.90 seconds to advance to the final scheduled for Sunday. On the final day of the World Championships, Iris Julia Berger in the 200 m backstroke, Alexander Trampitsch in the 200 m crawl and the men's relay team in the 4 x 100 m medley are still in action from the red-white-red perspective in the preliminary heats.