Houlie Lowers African, Commonwealth Games Records With 26.38 50 Breast - On His Split In The 100
South African swimmer Michael Houlie set a new African record in the 50m breaststroke during the opening split of his 100m semi-final race. Despite his impressive sprint speed, he faces challenges in maintaining his pace throughout the second half of longer events.
Why it matters
Houlie's performance highlights the tactical evolution of competitive swimming and the ongoing pursuit of continental records.
Michael Houlie blasted a new African record of 26.38 in the 50 breaststroke today, lowering Cameron van der Burgh ‘s 2017 standard by 0.16 seconds. Most impressively, Houlie’s swim tonight did not come in the 50 breast – it came on the front half of his 100 breast semi-final swim.
His intense front half tactic did not come as a complete surprise – he set a PB of 26.56 on the opening 50 this morning, with similar splitting to his race tonight. This seems to be a deliberate choice for the South African swimmer, leaning heavily on his sprint speed.
Hou;ie split 26.39/33.65 tonight, after splitting 26.56/33.58 this morning. Both final 50s were the slowest of any swimmer to progress
He moves up to rank second in the world this season behind Van Mathias .
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