BUDAPEST: World records continued to dissolve Friday at the short-course swimming world championships as seven fell, with Gretchen Walsh claiming three of them, including two in 26 minutes. As records tumbled to Americans in the evening session in Budapest, Kate Douglass set her third world mark of the week and Regan Smith added one more. In the last race of the evening, the men’s 4x200m relay, the Americans won in a world record with leadoff swimmer Luke Hobson breaking his 200m freestyle individual record.

Every record brought a 25,000 dollar (23,800 euro) bonus cheque from World Aquatics. “I love that they celebrate cool wins, records, with money incentives just because this isn’t a really high revenue earning sport,” said Walsh. In the morning heats, Walsh, a 21-year-old American, broke the world record for the 100m butterfly, when she clocked 53.24 seconds, smashing the previous record of 54.05sec set by Canada’s Margaret Mac Neil in 2022. Walsh returned to the pool in the evening to trim that time to 52.87 in the semifinals. In one day, she became the first woman to swim the distance in under 54 seconds, then in under 53 seconds.

Just 26 minutes later was back in the pool for the final of the women’s 100m medley, an event only swum in short-course competitions. She won in a world record of 55.11sec, breaking the mark of 55.08 she set in October. Walsh has seven record since the start of the week, six in individual events. Walsh, who won two relay golds in the Paris Olympics, got the competition off to a flying start, breaking the 50m butterfly record twice in the same day on Tuesday. On Thursday, she also set the fastest 100m medley time in history, bettering her own record. “It’s definitely payday, or rather pay-week I guess,” said Walsh. “I just think this is a lot of hard work culminating into one week.”

She added that she is still adjusting to racing in a 25m pool. “I just try to swim the best race I can, execute it and see what the time ends up being because I can’t quite grasp what I’m doing while I’m doing a race in short course meters yet,” she said. Her sister Alex also claimed a record on Thursday as part of the American 200m freestyle relay team. Douglass, the Olympic champion in the event, won the women’s 200m breaststroke final 2 minutes 12.50 seconds, breaking the record of 2:12.72 she set in October. 

She had already set records in the 200m medley final and, alongside Gretchen Walsh as part of the American 4 x 100m freestyle relay team. “I’m really glad I got this one!” said Douglass. “I’d like to keep going forward and do a lot of races!”

‘Awesome swim’

Smith, who also collected two relay golds in Paris, won the 50m backstroke, breaking another record held by Mac Neil in 2022. Smith won in 25.23 to better the Canadian’s time of 25.25. “That was a very pleasant surprise, that was an awesome swim!” said Smith. Smith won the 100m backstroke earlier in the week. In the men’s 200m freestyle relay, the United States won in 6:40.51, to pulverize the record of 6:58.55 set by an American quartet led by Michael Phelps in Rome in 2009. Hobson swum the first leg in 1:38.91 to break the individual record of 1:39.37 set by compatriot Paul Biedermann in Berlin in 2009. The final records of the day took the tally to 18 so far in the competition, 13 of them set by women and 14 by Americans. — AFP