Rio Olympics 2016: Ben Proud smashes British record to reach 50m freestyle final
BEN PROUD smashed the British record on his way to qualifying for Friday's 50m freestyle final in Rio.
The Plymouth speedster clocked 21.54 as he qualified fifth fastest.
Defending champion Florent Manaudou of France progressed fastest from Thursday's semi-final.
In a fast and furious burst of whitewater, Manaudou clocked 21.32 seconds, narrowly edging out Ukraine's Andrii Govorov and Anthony Ervin of the United States, who swam in the second semi-final and finished in a dead-heat in 21.46 seconds.
Nathan Adrian of the United States, Proud of Britain, Bruno Fratus of Brazil, Simonas Bilis of Lithuania and Brad Tandy of South Africa were the other qualifiers.
RELATED ARTICLES
Australia's Cameron McEvoy, who had qualified for the Games with the second fastest time in the world this year with a time of 21.44 seconds at the Australian championships, was 11th fastest in 21.89 seconds.
Proud had already set a new British record earlier this year when he clocked 21.65, and he will have to go even faster if he wants to make it onto the podium in Rio.