Australian Kyle Chalmers won gold in the 100m freestyle, the crowning event of the World Swimming Championships on Thursday in Fukuoka (Japan), while Frenchman Maxime Grousset took third place, ahead of Romanian star David Popovici , only sixth. Chalmers, 25, won after a dense round trip in 47 sec 15/100, ahead of American Jack Alexy and Frenchman Maxime Grousset, while Popovici experienced further disillusionment and was content with the sixth place with a time of 47 sec 83/100.
The Australian, Olympic champion in the discipline in Rio in 2016, gleaned his first individual title at the Worlds, when he had won silver at the Tokyo Games two years ago. He finished far ahead of one of the announced favorites of these world championships, the Romanian David Popovici. This is another disappointment for the 18-year-old prodigy, after his fourth place in the 200m freestyle.
Behind the American Jack Alexy, second, the French Maxime Grousset, silver medalist at the Budapest Worlds in 2022, slipped onto the podium for a small hundredth, ahead of the Chinese Zhanle Pan in 47 sec 83/100. Grousset, 24, thus won his second bronze medal at these Worlds after that obtained in the 50m butterfly.