Zirk clocked 1 minute 54.98 seconds in the heats of the men's 200m butterfly in Shanghai, making him fifth fastest overall.

"It was a relatively controlled swim and I managed to do my job and secure the lane for the final," said the Estonian record holder after the heats," said Zirk.

American Julian Trenton set the best time in the preliminaries with 1 minute.53.95 seconds, followed by Italy's Alberto Razzetti (1 minute 54.30 seconds) and James Guy of Great Britain (1 minute 54.54 seconds). The Estonian's personal best at this distance is 1 minute 50.51 seconds, which swam two years ago at the short course world championships.

In the evening, Zirk will be in action in two finals. First, the men's 1500 m freestyle final, where he will try to break the 15-minute barrier, and then the 200 m butterfly final.

"I discussed it with my coach and decided to do both finals anyway," said Zirk. "As quite a few guys dropped out of the 200m butterfly, there is nothing to lose in terms of the overall World Championship standing. Plus, having the 1500 m freestyle final before the butterfly is quite a favorable order for me."

In the men's 50 m backstroke, Ralf Tribuntsov's run of bad luck continued. The Estonian, who narrowly missed out on the 50 m freestyle final on Friday, unfortunately suffered the same fate in the backstroke.

Tribuntsov put in a decent performance, swimming 23.42 seconds, an agonizing 0.13 seconds slower than needed to make the top eight and earn a spot in the final

The fastest in the preliminaries was Australia's Isaac Cooper, who swam 22.58 seconds and was the only man to break the 23-second barrier. Tribuntsov holds the Estonian record for the men's 50m backstroke of 23.13 seconds, which he swam in 2023.

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