The German had quite a week in Abu Dhabi. Last Tuesday he medalled in the open water relay, the following day won the 10km World Series race. After two days’ training, he delivered a world record in the 1500m free, continuing his outstanding run of excelling both in the pool and in open water. Building on his 2019 Worlds (gold plus gold) and at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (gold plus bronze). This was the fourth world record in Abu Dhabi. The event also saw 11 Championship Records and 5 Junior World Records.

As for the other stories, in brief, Alessandro Miressi (ITA) committed two speeding offences in the pool, the first landed him the 100m free title, second secured Italy’s gold in the 4x100m medley relay. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) did the same among the women, she won the 50m free and later was part of Sweden’s winning medley relay. She also claimed a bronze in the 4x50m free to finish the meet with seven medals, the best individual total among the women.

Nic Fink (USA) completed his breaststroke treble by winning the 50m (was first in the 200m, third in the 100m – the first one to achieve that since 2004), while  Maggie MacNeal (CAN) won the 100m fly to bring her total to six medals in AbuDhabi, four of them gold, the most in the meet.

As a contrast, Poland’s Radoslaw Kawecki produced one really good swim in six days, but that earned him his fourth short-course world title in the 200m back. The Polish veteran barely made the final but in the evening he stunned the field from lane eight.

Right now, Florian Wellbrock (GER) looks unstoppable in so many disciplines. He is the reigning Olympic champion in the marathon, reigning world champion in the 10km and the 1500m free, and now he added the short-course world title to his trophy cabinet, taking down Greg Paltrinieri’s World Record from 2015.

It was 60 fantastic laps from the German, who had already geared up for this event by winning the last leg of the FINA Marathon Swim World Series a week ago, next to the Etihad Arena, in Yas bay. Just like at the 2019 Worlds, where he made the 10km–1500m double, he added the pool title here too and this came with a new world record (14:06.88). He switched gears at 1000m and soon went under world record pace and maintained that until the end. He leaves Abu Dhabi with a hefty paycheque: in open water, he took home US$18,000, this gold plus world record combo adds $US65,000. US$83,000 in a week, a nice sum before Christmas.

“I had a really good preparation for this meet, the open water events already proved that, so I came here today that I knew I had a chance to set a new world record,” said Wellbrock.  

“During the race, I was a bit afraid of Ahmed (Hafnaoui), he is the Olympic champion in the 400m so he is able to swim very fast. I thought he might be a threat. I tried to gear up after 1000m to build a gap large enough to feel safe and not be worried about his finish. I should say it worked very well.”

“This season was great, especially after 2020 when all of us in swimming had so many ups and downs, so much uncertainty,” he added. “Since I’ve always preferred long course, earlier this year I did not think of breaking the world record here as honestly, I had ridiculous times in short-course.I think my personal best was almost identical with my long-course top time, 14:35 something. Then, I had a really good race in Kazan [at the short-course Europeans], where I clocked 14:09 and, from that point, I knew anything was possible here.”

In the session opening women’s 4x50m Freestyle Relay, the Swedes tried to keep the advantage Sarah Sjostrom built over the first leg. They could only retain it until the last takeover, but Kate Douglass (USA) gained 0.4sec on Louise Hansson (SWE) to bring it home for the USA. Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NLD) clocked a monstrous 22.88 anchor leg to send the Dutch to the podium – despite turning seventh after 150m.

Alessandro Miressi reproduced his blast in the semis (45.58, now 45.57) and that was enough to clinch his first-ever individual title after a handful of medals from relays. With the new world record holder Kylie Chalmers (AUS) and the year’s best Caeleb Dressel (USA) being away, Miressi finally landed a gold medal.

“Oh, that’s amazing, I’m so happy,” he said. “I kept my calm, that was the main thing, as I knew I was coming back faster than anybody else and I could pass the others at the end.”

The women’s 200m breast final offered the same excitement as any of the sprinting races as it came down to the last metres. For a while, the pace was set at the upper three outside lanes, but for the last 50m, Evgenia Chikunova (RSF) seemed to keep up, as she had usually done earlier this autumn when she clocked three of the season’s top times (all the others came from Lilly King (USA) who wasn’t part of the show here). However, Emily Escobedo (USA) found an extra gear for the last strokes and managed to out-touch Chikunova and  Molly Renshaw (GBR) who led until the last turn. The top three hit the wall in a span of 0.11sec, Escobedo won by 0.03.

“I wanted to go out a little faster and I think I was fast,” said Escobedo.“I could only see Molly who was next to me and I knew we would be finishing neck and neck. I took a chance on an extra stroke and it paid off. But I was definitely nervous going for it as I wasn’t sure if it speeds me up or down a bit, depending on the glide, I’m happy that I did it though.”

Another last grasp win came in the men’s 200m back final –a truly amazing performance from the former king of the distance, Radoslaw Kawecki (POL). At 30 years of age   Kawecki seemed to be fading. Whilst he had three straight titles between 2012 and 2016, in recent years his majestic underwater legwork seemed to bring him less and less success. However, in early November he sent a strong message by winning the short-course Europeans. Even if he didn’t look like a medal contender this morning, almost missing the final (only 0.12sec saved him), but in the evening, swimming in lane 8, he gradually closed on the leaders. Turned 7th, then 5th, then 3rd, and while 100m champion Shaine Casas (USA) battled with Christian Diener (GER), Kawecki sneaked into the lead to clinch it by 0.13sec.

“Ah, it was the same as  2014 when I barely made the final then managed to win the race,” he smiled. “Well, the road to here was hard as I lost two weeks’ due to illness, I even had to skip our nationals, so I arrived here a bit undertrained and just used the 100m as training and waited for this last day event with growing hunger. I’m happy that I could still show that I belong with the best.”

The excitement just continued, in the men’s 50m breast 0.02sec separated Nic Fink (USA) and Nicolo Martinenghi (ITA). Martinenghi had to settle for another silver (he came second by 0.10sec in the 100m), while Fink medalled in all three breast events. First in the 200m, third in the 100m, before grabbing this title – following the footsteps of the great Brendan Hansen (USA), the last swimmer to achieve the breaststroke treble, in 2004. A bit surprisingly, Ilya Shymanovich(BLR), who owned six of the top ten efforts this season, including a world record-tying swim at the Europeans in November, missed the podium by 0.04sec.

“I don’t think I looked at the bar Brendan set, but to be associated with him, a legendary breaststroker whom I watched a lot growing up, to be in the same scenario with him, it’s a great feeling and an honour,” said Fink. “I’m happy that I had a great meet and was able to represent Team USA pretty well. When you participate for Team USA there are certain expectations that you’re going to fight for medals, the best positions you can. Even if I’ve been to a few Worlds, long-course, short-course, I got my first medals here, both individually and in relays. I didn’t really plan on medalling exactly, but I knew I was going to have a couple of fast swims after my season and it’s great that I found the way to break through, it went really well so I couldn’t be any happier.”

The last of the individual finals offered another showdown between the two sprinting queens: Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NLD) upended Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) in the 50m fly, now it was Sjostrom’ss time as the Swede ruled the 50m free this season, clocking the top 11 times, while Ranomi’s world record is from 2017. Sjostrom delivered, making it look easy, her winning gap was 0.23sec, set a new Championship Record (23.08) – Ranomi could still be happy to claim medal No. 28, thus becoming the most decorated female swimmer in the history of the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m).

“I’m actually really proud to pass Katinka [Hosszu] in the all-time ranks,” said Kromowidjojo.“Of course, I wanted to celebrate this feat with gold and also become the first with five titles in this event, but Sarah has been so fast this season. Still, it’s a great feeling, you know, I got my first medal in 2010 in Dubai, more than ten years ago. Yeah, it’s a story that began in the Emirates and also reached this high in the Emirates.”

The final medley relays usually offer the chance for many heroes to shine for one last time. Among the men, the Italians finished the championships on the highest note, as they swam a flawless race and won by a mile (0.74sec), ahead of the USA and the Russian Swimming Federation. Miressi claimed his second gold in the session and Martinenghi was also cheered up after his silver an hour before. As for the runners-up Ryan Held (USA) and Shaine Casas (USA) had a silver day (they also finished second in their individual finals), while Fink added a silver to his tally and finished the event with six medals in total (3-2-1), a great feat indeed (Casas and Held also have six). Kliment Kolesnikov grabbed his sixth medal here too, a bronze after four golds and a silver (one shy of his record of seven medals from Hangzhou 2018, here still the best tally in the men’s field). The Russians medalled in each of the male relays (2-2-1), and thanks to this, Aleksandr Shchegolev and Andrei Minakov also bagged six medals apiece.

As for the women’s relay, Sweden closed out the event with another gold. Sjostrom and Michelle Coleman (SWE) offered one last brilliant swim respectively and won convincingly by 1.16sec while bringing down the European record. The Canadians had to fight hard for the silver as China were surprisingly strong in lane 8. In the end, the Canadians made it, by 0.05sec, while the USA missed the podium after gaining two golds and two silvers in the previous four female relays.

This meant that Sarah Sjostrom left here with the highest medal haul,  finishing with seven (3-3-1), together with fellow Swede Louise Hansson (3-2-2), though Maggie MacNeil (CAN) had the most gold (4, just like Kolesnikov, first among the men in this regard too).

“First of all, I wouldn’t see that as revenge, in swimming it’s just fun to race with the best swimmers in the world,” said Sjostrom about her individual victory over Kromowidjojo. “I’m happy that I had my fastest swim in the final. So far in the meet, I had 23.3, 23.2, 23.5, then 23.3 again, and now 23.08, so I saved my best race for  the final and I’m super happy about it.”

The medley relay also proved that her once-pet event, the 100m fly – where she stunned the world as a 16-year-old in Rome 2009 – was still clicking. “Yeah, I’m still training for it, but the problem is that mentally it’s really hard to do that many events. I really, really want to focus on the 50m free, so it’s really tough for me to do the 50m free, 50m fly, 100m free, 100m fly, all the relays. Eight events would have been too much as I had seven medals here, so it’s all I can take now, especially after such a busy racing season. I would want and love to do the 100m IM and the 100m fly, but I would need a 10-day competition to be able to swim all these events…”

As for the best athlete awards, it was Siobhan Haughey (HKG) who became the female swimmer of the meet, thanks to her three individual medals (including two titles) and world record, ahead of MacNeal and Sjostrom. Among the men, Kolesnikov topped the ranks, Fink came second and Japan’s Daya Seto was third.

Unsurprisingly, Team USA grabbed the Championship Trophy, ahead of Italy, and also topped the medal charts for the sixth time in the last seven editions (Brazil was first in 2014). They amassed 30 medals (9-9-12), twice as many as runner-up Canada did (15, 7-6-2). Besides the Northern American feast, Italy enjoyed its best-ever performance at the short-course Worlds with 16 medals (5-5-6, 12 were their best effort before), just like the Canadians, and the Russian Swimming Federation also had a nice tally (15, 4-7-4).

History was made in Abu Dhabi as 28 nations featured on the podium, a new record since the 26 in 2002.

Due to the well-known situation around the world, now we need only wait one year before the next edition starts in Kazan, Russia, home of the 2015 FINA Worlds. However, the FINA Family shall already gather in Mayfor another top meet in Japan, home to this year’s Olympic Games. Fukuoka will welcome athletes in all six disciplines at the 19th FINA World Championships.