Swimmer Tribuntsov narrowly misses out on Estonian record in Toronto
Estonian swimmer Ralf Tribuntsov swam the second-best time of his career in the final of the 50-meter freestyle at the World Cup swimming series in Toronto, Canada.
In the preliminaries, 31-year-old Tribuntsov clocked a time of 21.22 seconds, advancing to the final in sixth place overall.
Tribuntsov acknowledged that there was still room for improvement. "I feel good, but unfortunately I stayed underwater too long after the start. My underwater strokes are still weak. It's great that I'm stable and able to achieve the same times, because I've actually already competed in two competitions," he said after the heats.
In the final, Tribuntsov managed to improve on his time from the morning, clocking a result of 21.17 seconds – just five hundredths of a second slower than the Estonian national record (21.12 seconds) he set in Carmel, Florida earlier this year.
Tribuntsov tied in sixth place for the Toronto stage with Ruslan Gaziev of Canada and Cameron Gray of New Zealand.
In this year's World Cup series, Tribuntsov has already achieved his three personal best results for the 50-meter freestyle. 21.12 seconds in Carmel, 21.22 seconds in Westmont and now, 21.17 seconds in Toronto.
"I am really happy that I was able to go a little faster in the evening and improve on my time from the Westmont stage. The crawl sprint is still raw – I need to work on some details," said Tribuntsov.
The event was won by Canada's Josh Liendo with a time of 20.31 seconds. Just before the final, Liendo set a new world record in the 100 m butterfly. On Friday evening, Tribuntsov will compete in his main event – the 50 m backstroke.
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Editor: Anders Nõmm, Michael Cole
