Australian swimmer breaks polyurethane era record

Havana, October 30 (RHC)-- Australian Kyle Chalmers, reigning Olympic runner-up, set a new world record in the 100-meter freestyle in short pool on Friday at the Kazan meet, the fourth stage of the Swimming World Cup, with a time of 44.84 seconds.

Chalmers lowered by 10 hundredths the previous world record held by Frenchman Amaury Leveaux (44.94) since December 2008.

The Australian swimmer, 100 freestyle champion at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and silver medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Games, had already come close to the world record last week, swimming 45.03, the third best world mark of all time, at the World Cup event in Doha.

Kyle Chalmers, 23, improved that record on Friday in Kazan, thanks to an explosive first 50 meters in 21.40 seconds, 32 hundredths of a second off Leveaux's time (21.72) set at the 2008 European Games in Rijeka.

The Australian was 1.48 seconds ahead of Russian Vladimir Morozov, holder of the second best time of all time, who finished second with a time of 46.32 seconds, and 1.51 ahead of Russian Kliment Kolesnikov, world junior record holder, who finished third with a time of 46.35 seconds.