Comeback king Cameron McEvoy has sent a warning to his world championship rivals that he’s the man to beat next month in Japan with a sizzling 50-metre freestyle time.
The 29-year-old swam the quickest time in the world this year in winning his heat in 21.27 seconds on Sunday and backed it up with victory in the final in a time of 21.41 to book his spot for Fukuoka.
It would have been fast enough to win silver at the Tokyo Olympics and a gold medal at last year’s world titles.
The next fastest time this year is by France’s Florent Manaudou, who clocked 21.56 this month.
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McEvoy said it was his first personal best in the freestyle in seven years, coming after he also topped his previous mark in the 50m butterfly earlier in the Melbourne race program.
He described his heat swim time to smash his previous record of 21.44 as beyond a fantasy.
The Queenslander said making the team after a year off following the Tokyo Games, and dramatically overhauling his training program, gave selection a different feel.
“It feels very special. It’s the first PB I’ve done in freestyle, in anything actually, in seven years, which is a very long time,” said McEvoy,who missed the semi-finals of the event in Tokyo.
“The approach has been very, very different actually and there’s an element of risk in doing it.
“It’s very calming and relieving that it worked.”
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A three-time Olympic bronze medallist, McEvoy credits his resurgence to adopting a rigorous callisthenics regime while reducing his kilometres in the pool, having added 10 kilograms of muscle to his frame.
In other races on the closing night of the trials, Shayna Jack relegated 11-time Olympic medallist Emma McKeon to second place in the women’s 50m to secure an individual race in Japan.
Tokyo bronze medallist Brendon Smith smashed the Swimming Australia qualifying time in the men’s 400m individual medley.
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-AAP
