Pan Pacific Championships, Night Three Finals: Matthew Temple, Ben Armbruster 1-2 in 100 Fly
The summer has been good to Australian butterfliers. All three medalists at the Commonwealth Games in the 50 were Aussies. They took both minor medals in the 100 and 200.
Two of them belonged to Ben Armbruster, including the co-title with Kyle Chalmers in the 50, and two belonged to Matthew Temple. Enough to convince them to try their hand at one more international race this year far from the gloom of Glasgow.
In the summer sun of California, they went 1-2 again.
Temple swam away with the win in 50.39 seconds, lowering the meet record set in 2018 by Caeleb Dressel at 50.75 seconds. Armbruster was second in 50.59.
Third place went to Luca Urlando, who went to 50.99 after a best time in the morning. Shoon Mitsunaga was fourth in 51.16, with Shaine Casas fifth in 51.24.
Temple moves ahead of the man who beat him by .01 in the Commonwealth Games final, Josh Liendo, in the world rankings. It doesn’t quite match the speed of three sub-50-second times authored at European Championships. But it is a marker for the Aussies as the Los Angeles Games loom in two years.
Thomas Heilman won the B final in 51.20. Dare Rose, who lost a swim-off with Casas for the second American spot in the A final, lost another touch, in 51.49. He had been 51.01 in the swim-off, .01 behind Casas. Urlando was nearly a half-second better than his previous best in the morning, going 50.86.
