FLASH! Gretchen Walsh Crushes Her 100 Fly WR, Storms Inside 53Secs
Gretchen Walsh crashed through the 53-second barrier as she lowered to 52.87 the 100 fly WR in the semis of the short-course worlds in Budapest.
It was the fifth individual world record for the USA swimmer in four days of racing in the Hungarian capital.
Walsh had gone 53.24 in prelims – after which she had 52 in her sights. She returned to the Duna Arena for the semis where she cut a further 0.37 to book lane four for Saturday’s final.
Louise Hansson of Sweden – who won silver in 2021 and bronze at Melbourne 2022 – is second through in 55.03 with Ellen Walshe lowering her Irish record to 55.50 in third.
Walshe said through Swim Ireland: “What a race to be a part of, the world record-holder and then it was broken again, I was right beside it so yeah, it’s phenomenal and exciting for tomorrow night.”
Asked about what she worked on between heats and the semi-final, Walshe added: “I think I was just practicing the small things, like turns, underwaters, breakouts and stuff, it really does come down to the small things that make a difference and I guess being beside the world record holder you’re going to try and hang on as close as you can but yeah it was a great race.”
