Milou van Wijk reached the final of the 50-meter freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on Saturday. Marrit Steenbergen was unable to continue her good form after her gold medal on Friday and missed the final.
Steenbergen won gold in the 100-meter freestyle on Friday, prolonging her world title in the marquee event. It was her second medal of this World Championship. Earlier, she won bronze with the relay swimmers, along with Van Wijk.
However, Steenbergen failed to qualify for the final of the 50-meter freestyle on Saturday. The Frisian finished fifth in a time of 24.61. That proved insufficient for the final, which starts on Sunday at 13:18.
Van Wijk did qualify for the final. The twenty-year-old from Zwijndrecht swam a time of 24.29 in the same semi-final as Steenbergen and qualified for the final as number two. Katarzyna Wasick (24.19) was the fastest.
Van Wijk once again impressed. On Friday, she narrowly missed out on bronze in the 100-meter freestyle. Van Wijk is only competing in individual events at a long course world championship in Singapore for the first time.
Later in the day, Steenbergen and Van Wijk hope to win gold with the mixed relay team in the final of the 4×100 meter freestyle. Renzo Tjon-A-Joe, Sean Niewold and Tessa Giele also belong to that team.
Impressive Finals and European Record
On other disciplines, several finals took place on Saturday. Frenchman Maxime Grousset won gold in the 100 meter butterfly in a European record of 49.62. He swam the third fastest time ever in that discipline.
Australian Kaylee McKeown completed a similar feat in the 200 meter backstroke. The Olympic champion from Paris swam the third fastest time ever with 2:03.33 and convincingly won gold.
Furthermore, American Katie Ledecky swam to gold with pain and effort in the 800 meter freestyle. The four-time Olympic champion in this discipline was pushed to the limit by Australian Lani Pallister (second) and the eighteen-year-old top talent Summer McIntosh (third) from Canada, but held her ground.
American top favorite Gretchen Walsh swam to first place in the 50 meter butterfly, in the absence of the pregnant Olympic champion Sarah Sjöström. Belgian Roos Vanotterdijk impressively won bronze. She became the first Belgian swimmer ever with two medals at a World Championship.
Cameron McEvoy from Australia lived up to his role as favorite by winning the 50 meter freestyle.