Po qualifying rounds nothing indicated that Kawêcki would be close to the top, not to mention the medal. The Pole reached the final with the eighth worst time. Kawêcki overtook the ninth competitor, Hugo Gonzalez, by just 12 hundredths of a second.
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Kawêcki’s great performance. After the qualifying rounds, nothing indicated that!
In the final, after 50 meters, there were still no signs of such success. As expected, Kawêcki was seventh. He started calmly, but started an excellent chase and with each successive turn he accelerated. He was already fifth at the halfway point. – These next lengths must be fantastic, outstanding! – said Przemys³aw Babiarz, commenting on the competition for TVP Sport, after 125 meters.
An excellent return after 125 meters gave Kawêcki the third place he held until the final straight. He, Shaine Casas, and Christian Diener went head to head with minimal differences. Kawêcki lost half a second to Diener, and 0.71 to Casas leading. Ultimately, Kawêcki, thanks to his great tactics, kept more strength for the final. After the last turn, he stayed under water for a long time and made up another tens of seconds, and the podium order was decided literally in the last few meters. Kawêcki was ahead of both the German and the American at the last possible moment! The Pole reached the finish line with a time of 1: 48.68. The silver went to the American Shaine Casas, who lost only 18 hundredths of a second to the Pole (1: 48.81), and the third was Christian Diener with a loss of ± 21 hundredths (1: 48.87).
This is the fourth title in his career world champion for Kawêcki at the short swimming pool. He won his first gold in 2012, then he triumphed in 2014 and 2016. However, this year Kawêcki also won gold for the European Championship, also 200 meters backstroke.
Katarzyna Wasick was also quite successful on Tuesday. Polka reached for a bronze 50 meters freestyle. Poland already has two medals at the world championship at the short pool in Abu Dhabi.
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