9th FINA World Swimming Championships (Short Course i.e. 25m)

The 9^th FINA World Swimming Championships was held at Manchester, Great Britain from 9-13^th April. The M.E.N. Arena, the largest indoor arena in Europe that is known to host some of the biggest touring acts, was converted to be the venue for this meet. This was the fastest ever championships with eighteen World Records being created. Click here to get the list of World Records and Championship Records created.

Ryan Lochte (USA) and Kristy Coventry (Zimbabwe) were named the best swimmers in the male and female category respectively. They broke 3 World Records each.

Men’s 50m Freestyle in which Duje Draganja from Croatia created a new World Record.

Ankur Poseria, who studies and trains at the University of Southern California, was the lone Indian representative.

Ankur got off to a great start as he swam a sizzling 100m Butterfly on the first day. He finished a very respectable 22^nd with a time of 52.96sec. He missed making the semi-finals (top 16) by 0.34. This is probably the closest an Indian swimmer has ever come to making a semi-final at the World Championships. Using a Short Course (25m) to Long Course (50m) converter we get a time of 53.60sec.

On the second day he swam the 50m Freestyle in which he finished 40^th with a time of 23.12sec. This roughly translates to a long course time of 23.81sec.

On the third day he swam the 50m Butterfly in which he finished 31^st with a time of 24.50sec.

On the fourth day he swam the 100m Freestyle in which he finished 47^th with a time of 51.14sec. This roughly translates to a long course time of 52.67sec.

Click here for all the results.