The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Haas wins silver in 200m freestyle at World Championships
07.25.2017 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Texas junior Townley Haas wins his first individual World Championships medal, scores second medal of the meet.
BUDAPEST, Hungary – Only the defending Olympic champion managed to outlast Townley Haas in the 200-meter freestyle final, as the Texas junior won silver in the event Tuesday evening at the 17th FINA World Championships.
Haas, the two-time defending U.S. national champion in the event, won his first individual medal at a World Championships meet and claimed silver for the U.S. in 1 minute, 45.04 seconds. Defending Olympic champion Sun Yang of China won gold in 1:44.39, and Russia's Aleksandr Krasnykh claimed the bronze in 1:45.23.
Haas held third place at 50 meters in 24.36 seconds and moved into second place at the 100m mark in 50.64, just behind James Guy of Great Britain. Haas slipped to a close third at 150m in 1:17.87 before passing Hungary's Dominik Kozma in the final 50 meters to nail down the silver in 1:45.04.
Haas adds silver to his gold medal from earlier in the week in the 4x200m freestyle relay. The Richmond, Virginia, native has dominated the 200-yard freestyle in college and has excelled in the 200m freestyle on the international level since his arrival at Texas in 2015.
Haas holds the American record and back-to-back NCAA titles in the 200-yard freestyle. He posted a fifth-place finish in the 200m freestyle at the 2016 Olympic Games to go with his silver medal in the event Tuesday night in Budapest.
Texas-Ex Jack Conger reached the 200m butterfly semifinals for Team USA. The 2017 NCAA champion and American record holder in the 200-yard butterfly qualified fifth for Wednesday's final at 1:55.30
Texas-Ex Clark Smith represented the U.S. Tuesday morning in the 800m freestyle preliminary round and placed 10th overall in 7:51.83.
Wednesday's preliminary round, which features Texas senior Joseph Schooling in the 100m freestyle, gets underway at 2:30 a.m. CT on Olympic Channel and OlympicChannel.com. The finals, which feature Conger in the 200m butterfly, air live on NBC Sports Network and NBCSports.com at 10:30 a.m. CT.
Players Mentioned
