Stefan Nystrand has one goal in mind. A medal in the 100-meter freestyle. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/Scanpix
The question is whether the final early Thursday morning, Swedish time, will be a fight for the bronze for Stefan Nystrand. That Sullivan and Bernard are impossible to take? – No, shame on anyone who gives up.
You just have to keep going, said the blue-yellow hope after having made 47.91 in the semi-final and advanced to the final with a fifth time. Nystrand's time was eight hundredths slower than in the trials on Tuesday when he improved his Swedish record.
Australian Eamon Sullivan's newly set world record is 47.05. Minutes before, Alain Bernard, France, swam in 47.20. – You had a feeling that it could be improved. 47.05 is quite fast. But it's in the semi-final and tomorrow is the final and then the conditions are completely different.
There will be nerves. But of course, they will be really tough to take, said Nystrand. The Olympic champion from Athens, the Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband, had a third time with 47.68. Jonas Persson was eliminated and had a 13th time with 48.59. Nystrand said that the form is there. – I don't have that flow yet.
I'm in good shape, in top shape. But that little thing is missing. Sullivan has now broken the world record twice over the distance in the Olympics alone. In the starting stretch of the team race he recorded 47.24. The development has been enormous this year alone with five world records, three times by Bernard and two by Sullivan.
The Australian enters the final as the favorite, but said: – World records don't matter much, they don't give medals today. I didn't watch the first semi-final, but I heard the audience and understood what had happened. I already knew in advance that it was important to swim really fast to get to the final. He did. The final looks like it will be a fight against Bernard. Unless Stefan Nystrand finds the last gear.