BUDAPEST • World and Olympic champions Caeleb Dressel and Adam Peaty smashed their own short-course world records on the final day of the International Swimming League (ISL) season on Sunday.
American Dressel, who last Monday became the first man to swim the 100m individual medley in under 50 seconds, sliced a further six tenths off his 49.88 seconds with a new best of 49.28sec.
The 24-year-old, racing for the Cali Condors team, has now gone nearly a second faster than anyone else in history, with the previous best before him being Russian Vladimir Morozov, who set a then-record 50.26sec in 2018.
In the 100m breaststroke, London Roar's Peaty touched the wall in 55.41sec, beating his own previous record of 55.49sec the 25-year-old Briton set in the same Budapest pool a week ago.
Energy Standard's Belarusian Ilya Shymanovich finished second, with his time equalling Peaty's previous record.
"It feels like every race is a world championship or an Olympic final, it's incredible," said London Roar general manager Rob Woodhouse. "Seeing all these world records is just amazing."
Peaty told British Swimming's website: "I'm very happy to come away with another world record and on the 50m breaststroke (25.41sec) again, it was another British record and a personal best, so I'm getting closer to the 50m world record (25.25sec set by South Africa's Cameron van der Burgh in 2009), which would be ideal! I tried to use my energy to get the best swims I could. Still a lot to grow, still a lot to learn, but I think I'm in a very good place going into a long-course season now, and the Olympics.
"I'm very happy with my performances and I think the team can be very happy with where we ended up. It was very, very close."
Dressel, a double Olympic relay gold medallist in 2016 and winner of seven world championship golds in Budapest in 2017 and a further six in Gwangju last year, set two world records on Saturday in the 100m butterfly and 50m freestyle.
Dutch swimmer Kira Toussaint of the London Roar set a women's 50m backstroke world record of 25.60sec on Nov 14.
The teams, featuring many of the world's top swimmers, had been racing behind closed doors in Budapest since Oct 16 with Energy Standard, Cali Condors, LA Current and London Roar reaching the finals.
Cali Condors won the overall event ahead of Energy Standard, with London Roar coming in third.
With the Tokyo Olympics postponed until next July, and other competitions cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ISL gave more than 300 swimmers a focus and the chance to team up and race again. Athletes remained in a protective "bubble" with regular Covid-19 tests and there were no positive results registered at the event.
"It's been such a fun time, this whole bubble," said Dressel.
"This is the most fun I've ever had swimming in my life. To have that for six weeks is truly special."
REUTERS
