Fifth place is the most advanced on a global level on 800 meters freestyle for the Jönköping swimmer and 7.47,00 his second fastest race on the distance.
Victor Johansson, who already set three Swedish records in Singapore, is known for going out cautiously to then increase and be among the strongest at the end of the race.
This time, his fall was a too hard opening.
I and Niko (Martikainen, the coach) talked about trying to cut off half a second on the first 200 compared to yesterday. It became 1.5 seconds and I had to eat up the last half. I got tired and it became a bit sloppy. I should have kept my cool, he says.
"Have more in mind"
But he does not regret his attempt with a harder opening.
I know I have more in mind. It's just about finding that limit where you don't blow yourself up. It's a fine line. If I'm going to go down towards 7.40 (the Swedish record from Tuesday is 7.44,81), then I have to be able to go out hard.
There are three years left until the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, sometime I have to try.
Victor Johansson was under his record in half the race, but then it didn't go any further in the high speed.
Fastest textile race
Young Tunisian Ahmed Jaouadi, 20, burned away with 7.36,88 – the fastest textile race in history. The two faster times in history, Chinese Zhang Lin's world record of 7.32,12, are from 2009 – the last year with the super suits before they were banned.
Jaouadi, Olympic Games fourth last year, won ahead of German Sven Schwarz and Lukas Märtens, World Championship winner and Olympic Games champion on half the distance.
After a fourth and a fifth place on 400 and 800 meters, 1,500 meters freestyle remains for Victor Johansson.
Now it's into the room with AC, rest, stretch, drink water, electrolytes, salts and just let the body recover, he says.
