Cielo wins men's 50m butterfly world title
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shanghai-fina2011.com, July 26, 2011
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Cesar Cielo cries happy tears. |
In the men's 50 fly final, the emotional Cesar Cielo may have excised some of his deamons by taking a big win, his first of the meet, in 23.10. He got off of the blocks hard, and while Australia's Geoff Huegill appeared to be about one kick too aggressive on his underwater, Cielo had a great breakout to sprint to the lead, and didn't look back. Cielo's stroke is the embodiment of the modern 50 butterfly that looks more like a two-armed freestyle than anything else。
After his win, Cielo was in tears for about 30 seconds before he could compose himself to get out of the pool. Cielo is typically emotional after big finals like this, but the pressure had to be even more overbearing in this race after all of the hysterics surrounding his positive test for a banned substance, and the CAS’ subsequent decision to uphold a warning given by his National Federation. The crowd in the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center seemed to be fairly supportive of Cielo overall, though he got mixed reviews from his opponents.
At least one swimmer, in a poor display of sportsmanship got out of the water and gave Cielo two thumbs-down, but silver-medalist Matt Targett stopped on his way out of the pool, and gave Cielo a rub of support and a congratulations in his ear. While it's understandable that some swimmers are upset about the outcome of Cielo's doping case, good sportsmanship is still good sportsmanship, and Targett displayed it while others didn't.
With all eyes focused on the middle of the pool and Cielo versus Huegill, the other Australian Matt Targett snuck in from an outter lane to steal silver in 23.28. Geoff Huegill won bronze in 23.35, but as is usual he went to the opposite end of the emotional spectrum from Cielo and constantly had a huge grin on his face throughout. It was great to see the wide-range of emotions coming from the top competitors.
French Brothers-in-law Fred Bousquet (23.38) and Florent Manaudou (23.49) finished 4th and 5th, with the elder Bousquet pulling rank over the younger Manaudou.
