FLASH! Bobby Finke Crushes 1500 Free World Record In 14:30.67; WJR For Kuzey Tuncelli

FLASH! Bobby Finke Crushes 1500 Free World Record In 14:30.67; WJR For Kuzey Tuncelli

Bobby Finke set a new 1500 free world record of 14:30.67, 12 years to the day since Sun Yang set the previous mark at London 2012.

The American was 0.94 inside Sun’s WR at 1450 and came home in 26.27 to take 0.35 off the Chinese athlete’s long-standing mark and defend the title he won in Tokyo three years ago.

Finke, coached by Anthony Nesty at the University of Florida, becomes the fourth man to win back-to-back titles in the longest race in the pool, joining fellow American Mike Burton (1968/1972) and Australian great Kieren Perkins (1992/1996) and Grant Hackett (2000/2004).

Vladimir Salnikov also won two titles but eight years apart in 1980 and 1988.

Gregorio Paltrinieri was second in 14:34.55, adding silver to his Rio 2016 gold, with Daniel Wiffen adding bronze to his 800 title in 14:39.63.

David Betlehem of Hungary was fourth in 14:40.91 while also of note was Kuzey Tuncelli who lowered his WJR to 14:41.22, as the 16-year-old finished fifth.

The Turkish teenager demolished the previous record last month when he went 14:41.89 at the European Junior Championships to take 4.2secs off the previous standard of 14:46.09 held by Croatian Franko Grgic since 2019.

Ahmed Jaouadi of Tunisia was sixth in 14:43.35 followed by French pair David Aubry (14:44.66) and Damien Joly (14:52.61)

One reason Sun’s record stood the test of time was the Chinese athlete’s final 100 where he split 27.81/25.68 for an eye-watering 53.49.

To put that into some kind of context, Paltrinieri was 2.81 inside the WR at 1400 at the Budapest worlds in 2022 but his final 100 was 4.59secs slower as he finished 2.78secs outside in 14:32.80, a European record.

No other man had broken 14:32 until Ahmed Hafnaoui touched out Finke for the 2023 world title in 14:31:54 to 14:31.59.

Finke is noted for her trademark late charge but the 24-year-old struck out from the first stroke and seemed to take the rest of the field by surprise, such was his scorching pace and subsequent clear water.

He reached 400 in 3:50.38 ahead of Paltrinieri (3:52.05) and Wiffen (3:53.30) before the Italian ate into the deficit to move within 0.69 at the 600m mark with the Irishman more than a further 2secs adrift.

Paltrinieri reduced the deficit to 0.6 at the halfway mark as Finke reached 750 in 7:15.88 to 7:16.48.

The American picked up the pace again however and at 1000m was 1.38 inside WR pace. Paltrinieri attacked again but Finke’s turns and underwaters gave him an advantage every time.

Come the 1400m mark and Finke turned in 13:35.33 – 1.16 ahead of Paltrinieri with Wiffen a further 4.68secs adrift – and 2.20secs inside the WR.

At 1450, that had been reduced to 0.94 and it appeared the record may elude Finke given Sun’s blistering final 50 of 25.68 in London all those years ago.

Finke, however, turned on the turbo to come home and consign Sun’s record to history.

Bobby Finke: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia

As he broke the duck for the US male swimmers in Paris, they avoided the fate of being the first team to not have an individual male title since Athens 1896.

“I knew,” said Finke. “I was reading all the articles and all the comments and everything. I like reading that stuff. It kind of motivates me inside.

“The world’s getting faster, and I think it’s a really good thing. It’s a really healthy thing for the sport. If one country is always dominating, I can’t really sit there and say the sport is growing. As much as it sucks that we’re not dominating any more, I think it’s good for the sport, and it shows how far the sport has come. Like what Michael Phelps has been able to do for the sport and potentially what Leon Marchand’s going to be able to do for the sport.”

Going out fast, he said, enabled him to build up a lead that wasn’t threatened.

“That really was not my strategy to go into the race. I didn’t know how the race was going to play out, so I kind of saw I had a pretty decent lead at the 300 and I knew I kind of just had to keep going and hopefully try and make the guys hurt a little bit trying to catch up to me. They started catching up to me, and I was getting a little worried, but I knew I just had to keep pushing him. As long as I could keep a little bit of a distance, I knew I was in good shape.”

He added:” I could see the world-record line on the board a couple of times, it wasn’t like I was trying to see it, I just happened to see it.”

Paltrinieri now has five Olympic medals from the last three Games –  one gold, two silvers and two bronzes including a third-placed finish in the 8 in Paris.

Paris 2024 was the Italian’s fourth Games, 12 years after making his Olympic debut at London 2012 where he finished fifth aged 17.

Up next is the open water in which he won bronze in Tokyo as well as world and European titles.

His is a career of longevity, but the hunger remains.

“It will be always there,” he said. “If I quit today, tomorrow I will miss it. I have always longed to compete. I started without feeling nervous. I feel the same every time I compete, for the European championships, the worlds, the Olympic Games.”

Neither is he looking too far ahead nor pondering retirement with the Italian turning 30 next month.

Gregorio Paltrinieri: Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini/Deepbluemedia

“I tried not to think about it over the past months, because I was thinking about the present, the moment. These could have been my last events in the pool. The open water might allow me to keep going, but I am not getting my head around medals, I am thinking more about my desire. I might even carry on (swimming) in the pool.

“I could even try to get on other podiums, but I am thinking more about what I like doing. In this moment, the pool has become very tiring for me. Let’s see.”

Wiffen has had an astonishing 2024 so far with double gold at the Doha worlds followed by gold and bronze in the French capital.

The 23-year-old has almost single-handedly pulled Irish swimming out of the shadow that had been cast by Michelle Smith, who won triple gold at Atlanta 1996 only to be banned for tampering with a doping sample two years later.

Wiffen’s time was his fourth-fastest and matched the time that secured Ryan Cochrane silver behind Sun 12 years ago.

Wiffen, who is coached by Andi Manley at Loughborough Performance Centre, had mixed feelings, saying: “To get a bronze medal in this, I’m sure if I said it at the start of the week, people would be very happy with it. But obviously, becoming an Olympic champion on the third day then finishing it off on the ninth day, it’s a little bit sad.”

After qualifying first from the prelims, Wiffen set his sights on the WR although he ‘knew’ that Finke would change his tactics and instead it was the American who wrote a new line in the history books.

“I said to Gregorio before the race that I knew that was going to happen,” he said. “And the only problem was I didn’t see it. I was looking that way, but I got body-blocked by Greg. Maybe that was the same what happened to Bobby in the 800 but I didn’t see Bobby go and by the time I noticed, I saw this leg kick, and I was like, oh, okay, now with this it’s going to be a very painful 1,500 for me.”

He added: “I was trying to dig deep, trying to push it on. I was catching in the middle. And then, to be honest, I just got blew up because it was probably a bit too much today to catch.”

Wiffen had studied Sun’s 2012 race many times and in an interview with Swimming World last year, he identified Finke as the only swimmer who could possibly come back in a 53, adding somewhat prophetically: “I‘m not going to lie, I think you just have to hold a pace that’s way under the WR so you’ve got that leeway on the last 100 so you probably need to be three seconds faster than him going into the last 100.”

He said in Paris: “I’m happy for it to go. It was a record that needs to be off the books. And I’m very pleased with Bobby. He’s a great competitor, and everybody’s very friendly in the field, which maybe you don’t get in a lot of events. And I’m very happy that all three of us shared the podium again, maybe different order this time than the 800, but it’s going to be a long, long couple of years of battling it out for who gets the top spot.”