Kyle Charmus (25, Australia), a gold medalist in the men’s 100m freestyle at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, conquered the top of the world championship even after seven years.
Charmouth was the first to score in the men’s 100m freestyle final at the 2023 International Swimming Federation World Championships at Marine Messe Fukuoka Hall in Fukuoka, Japan, on the 27th with a time of 47.15.
It was 0.16 seconds ahead of the 47.31 seconds of Jack Alexi (20, USA), the silver medalist. Maxim Grouse (24, France) won the bronze medal with 47.42 seconds.
Charmouth has been on the podium mainly as a relay Englishman at the world championships.
At the 2019 Gwangju Games, he won the gold medal in the 800m relay, and at last year’s Budapest Games, he stood on the top of the podium with his colleagues in the 400m relay.
Charmouth, who finished second in the 100-meter freestyle semi-final with a time of 47.52 seconds the previous day, also failed to stand out at the beginning of the final.
In the first 50m section, he was last at 23.04 seconds, but in the remaining 50m, he beat all players with an explosive spurt and hit the touchpad first.
Pan Zhanler (18, China), who is set to compete for the gold medal with Hwang Sun-woo (20, Gangwon Provincial Office) at the Hangzhou Asian Games, failed to win the medal with 47.43 seconds, 0.01 seconds behind third-place Gruse.
Matthew Richards (20, England), who won the gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle and also passed the semifinals of the 100-meter freestyle, finished fifth with 47.45 seconds.
David Popovich (18, Romania), who emerged as the strongest player in the event by winning both the 100m and 200m freestyle at the Budapest Games last year, finished sixth with a low record of 47.83 seconds.
Popovich was also pushed to fourth place in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:44.90, failing to reach the podium.
Earlier, Hwang Sun-woo did not get a ticket to the final as he finished 9th in 48.08 seconds in the semifinals of the 100m freestyle.
Summer Macintosh (16, Canada), the “swimming genius” of the women’s division, won her first gold medal in the tournament.
McIntosh was the first to hit the touchpad in the women’s 200-meter butterfly final with a time of 2:04.06.
Elizabeth Deckers (19, Australia) won the silver medal with 2:05.46 and Regan Smith (21, USA) won the bronze medal with 2:06.58.
McIntosh won two gold medals in the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley at the Budapest Games last year, and set a world record (3:56.08) in the 400m freestyle this year.
At the Fukuoka Games, he was expected to become the multi-gwan king and emerge as the new swimming queen, but he failed to win a medal in the 400m freestyle and only won a bronze medal in the 200m freestyle.
In the butterfly, he beat his competitor far away with an overwhelming race.
In the men’s 200m individual medley, Leon Marciang (21, France) set a new European record of 1:54.82 and became the main character of the gold medal.
Marchamps, who previously won the 400m individual medley with a time of 4:02.50 minutes, breaking the world record held by “swimming emperor” Michael Phelps (USA) for the first time in 15 years, won both gold medals in the individual medley.
In the women’s relay, Australia set a world record in the 800m following the 400m and harvested a gold medal.
Australia, where Molly O’Connorheon (19), Shana Jack (24), Brianna Thorsel (27) and Ariane Titmus (22, Australia) competed, stood at the top of the podium, setting a new world record of 7:37.50 in the women’s 800m relay.
Australia beat the second-place U.S. (7:41.88), where Erin Gemmel (18) ~ Katie Ledecky (26), Bella Sims (18) ~ Alex Shackel (16) competed, by 3.88 seconds.