Diogo Ribeiro qualified for the 50m butterfly final at the World Cup

Portuguese Diogo Ribeiro qualified this Sunday for the final of the 50-meter butterfly at the World Swimming Championships in Singapore, with the fifth best time in the semifinals in the distance in which he was world champion in 2024.

Diogo Ribeiro, world champion over the distance in Doha2024 and silver in Fukuoka2023, swam the distance in 22.83 seconds, three hundredths of his national record, and was beaten, in his semi-final, only by the Swiss Noe Ponti (22.72) and the British Benjamin Proud (22.74).

In the overall semi-finals, he recorded the fifth best time, with Frenchman Maxime Grousset recording 22.61, and qualified for the final, on Monday morning, at 12:45 pm in Lisbon, in a distance that will debut in the Olympic program in Los Angeles2028.

The 22.83 that the 20-year-old swimmer, from Coimbra, achieved this Sunday is surpassed, in Portugal, only by his 22.80 with which he won silver at the Fukuoka 2023 World Championships, then in the country's first ever podium at the World Championships.

In the early hours of Sunday in Lisbon, on the first day of pure swimming at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, which end on August 3, Diogo Ribeiro had recorded the fourth best time in the heats, with 22.90.

Francisca Martins finished 15th in the 400 freestyle, with 4:10.16 minutes, just a few days after becoming world university champion in the distance, also swimming the 200 freestyle in the city-state.