Cameron McEvoy inches closer to 50m freestyle world record to open Swimming World Cup in Tashkent

 

Cameron McEvoy and Marrit Steenbergen sit second all-time in their respective events after Thursday’s starter to the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Tashkent

The Swimming World Cup 2026 Silk Road Tour continued on Thursday evening in Uzbekistan with some of the world’s best putting on a scintillating show for the crowd at the Palace of Water Sports within Tashkent's Olympic City complex.

Australia’s Cameron McEvoy, who has transformed and put intention to action on how to best train for the 50m Freestyle, nearly became the second man to break 20 seconds in the final of the 50m Freestyle. McEvoy swam 20.13 to set the World Cup record, lowering the mark he set last week in Baku at 20.22. The swim puts McEvoy second on the all-time list, and helps him close in on the 19.90 that Jordan Crooks set in 2024.

McEvoy, age 32, has committed to a sprint specific training regime that has seen him only achieve a 3km/week volume set in a given training week, allowing him to unlock the potential of the 50m Freestyle. Since committing to becoming a straight 50m Freestyler where his earlier career saw him as a 100/200m Freestyler, McEvoy has won the Olympic gold and two World titles in the long course pool. It was only this month that he executed a flip turn in the short course venue for the first time in five years.

As for whether the 19.9 was on the table for next week in Kazakhstan, McEvoy wasn’t so sure.

"I need to look at my analysis,” McEvoy said. “My swim speed, beautiful. Skills? Not so much. So I think the more I, I guess, get experience at 20.1, 20.2 speed, the more I'll learn the turn. Then hopefully, hopefully I can find something like 0.14 and go 19.99 or something like that. That would be incredible. So… if not now, I'll try it in Beijing."

McEvoy finished well ahead of Russia’s Egor Kornev (20.61) in second, who tied the 100m Freestyle world record last week and has emerged as McEvoy’s biggest challenger.

“Yeah, the bar is high,” McEvoy said of racing Kornev. “You have to get the second best ever in the 50m free to win, or you have to beat the world record holder in the 100m to win. It's pretty crazy.  So I didn't pick the easy events to get a point score at these World Cups, but I think it's very good entertainment for the swim community.”