Erik Persson became only the second Swede, alongside Victor Johansson's two finals, to succeed in advancing from the trials so far in the World Championship in Singapore.
But the start almost failed him.
Or the starts.
In the first trial, the swimmers were called down from the block again.
Something happened so we had to go down, it was a bit strange. They kept us for a very long time too, I was standing up on the block and started to shake, says the 31-year-old.
”Came in wrong”
In the second trial, they took off, but Persson ended up far behind.
I came in wrong in the first 50 meters and had to work my way into it. That made me stumble at the end, says Persson who got a final time of 2.11,34, almost seven tenths over his season's best and just under four seconds over his own Swedish record.
The World Championship silver medalist on the distance in 2022 took the last semifinal spot with a margin of three hundredths.
The plan for the semifinal is clear:
It's to try to come in at the right tempo in the first 50 meters and then keep the second and third fairly even. So hopefully, you have some strength left in the last 30, he says.
Near for Åstedt
Sofia Åstedt was only one hundredth over her personal record on 100 meters freestyle and swam in at 54,47.
Just nine hundredths from a semifinal spot.
I'm 20th in the World Championship so I'm damn pleased. It's clear that it would have been fun to swim in the afternoon (in the semifinal), I might have been able to swim even faster then, but being one hundredth over my "pers" in a trial is great, says the 21-year-old Elfsborg swimmer.
Correction: In an earlier version, the wrong distance occurred.
