FLASH! Gretchen Walsh Crushes 50 Fly World Record; Takes Down Therese Alshammar’s 2009 Mark
Gretchen Walsh crushed the 50 fly world record in 24.02 as she took down the standard held by Therese Alshammar since November 2009.
Out in 11.28 and back in 12.74 in the fifth of six prelims at the Duna Arena, the USA swimmer took 0.36 from Alshammar’s record of 24.38 that had stood the test of time since the shiny-suit era.
It was the first WR of the short-course worlds which run from 10-15 December in Budapest and secured the two-time Olympic champion a welcome USD 25,000.
USA teammate Kate Douglass had come closest to Alshammar’s record when she went 24.42 at the Singapore leg of the World Cup in November.
Walsh, who had an entry time of 25.20 coming into the meet, said: “Definitely an awesome way to start the meet, the best way I could have. I think I have a lot more to come in that race – just some details I could tune up and execute it a bit better. So I’m looking forward to semis and finals hopefully, just getting better and better so definitely excited for tonight.
“It’s going to be a very busy meet but I’m looking forward to more swims like that hopefully.”
Walsh was three when Alshammar broke the record in 2009 as the supersuited era neared its end although the American wasn’t entirely surprised by her performance given her training times.
“I had an idea, yes,” she said. “In practice the other day I was doing some fast 50s and I was getting kind of close off of Todd’s watch – he’s my coach (Todd DeSorbo) and his watch is pretty fast – and if I can do that in practice, I was thinking I could hopefully do something special here today and at this meet so I’m looking forward to hopefully, maybe, getting under that 24 barrier tonight.”
Walsh has little international experience over short-course metres, something she welcomed, saying: “I kind of like that I’m a rookie in it because there’s no pressure really. I can go out there, I don’t have any times in any of my events. I like just having the opportunity to go best times and see what I can do and then get better as the meet goes on. And just learn short-course metres more.”
Arina Surkova was second into tonight’s semis in 24.78, the neutral athlete was the only other woman inside 25secs.
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