Emma McKeon continued her golden form with victory in the women’s 50m butterfly at the FINA Swimming World Cup in Budapest, Hungary on Friday (8 October).
The Australian, who was the most decorated female swimmer at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, touched home in 24.97, ahead of compatriot Holly Barratt in second and Netherlands’ Maaike de Waard in third.
It is an improvement for McKeon, who picked up silver at last week’s Berlin stop, as well as two freestyle gold medals.
Rio 2016 Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers won gold No. 2 of the event in the men’s 100 freestyle with 45.50, a day after sealing the 50m free title.
Vladimir Morozov of the ROC clinched second while Tokyo 2020 butterfly gold medallist Kristof Milak of Hungary was third.
It was another very successful night in the pool for Australia overall, with Madison Wilson claiming her second women’s 200m freestyle title out of two this World Cup season.
She finished in 1:53:82, with Katja Fain of Slovenia and USA’s Erin Gemmell taking second and third respectively.
It didn’t take long for Matthew Sates to make his mark on the event.
Fresh from smashing world junior records in last week’s Berlin leg and in yesterday’s 400m medley, South Africa’s breakout star added the men’s 200m medley title in Budapest to his name.
His time of 1:53:43 was too good for Lithuanian Danys Rapsys, who was also swimming in the 400m event and has now finished second to Sates twice in two days. Third place went to Yakov Toumarkin of Israel.
Reigning 10km open water Olympic Florian Wellbrock maintained his perfect record in the men’s 1500m freestyle, stopping the clock in 14:42:70, over four seconds quicker than second-placed Hungarian Akos Kalmar and Austrian Felix Auboeck in third.
Elsewhere, men’s 200m butterfly world record holder and Olympic champ Kristof Milak won the men’s 50m backstroke in 23.08, ahead of Australia’s Zac Incerti in second and Szebasztian Szabo of Hungary in third.
There was arguably an upset in the men’s 50m breaststroke, where Slovenian Peter Stevens out-touched in-form Dutchman Arno Kamminga in a winning time of 26.22 with Fabian Schwingenschlogl of Germany in third.
In the final meet of the night, the USA maintained their winning streak in the mixed 4x50m freestyle relay.