Australia's Green-and-Gold Sprint Streak Cameron McEvoy clocked lifetime best short-course times in the 50m and 100m free at the opening round of the 2026 'Silk Road' World up in Baku and felty there was n'room for improvement'.

He delivered that this evening in Tashkent by lowering his 20.22 World Cup standard from last week to 20.13 to leapfrog from fourth to second all-time 0.23sec shy of the astonishing 19.90 speed of Jordan Crooks, of the Caymans, back in 2024 on his way to retirement.

Having last week sidled up to the virtual shoulder of American Caeleb Dressel (20.16) and the retired Brit Ben Proud, now testing himself in a realm that allows what remain banned substances in the world he left behind, McEvoy leap-frogged both for all-time No2, with a clear view of his Caymans quarry.

Crooks made a comeback in June this year, and the race is on to see how he fares in the fray with the fastest swimmer ever in the big sibling of the 25m pool, the Olympic 50m pool.

In that measure of a tank, there's a significantly bigger gap between the Aussie and the US-based short-course speedster from the Caymans who honed his speed at Tennessee in NCAA s/c college yards and in the same year he broke the metres s/c standard became the second man after Dressel ever to sprint inside 18sec over 50 yards:

• 20.88 WR - McEvoy, 2026 VS 21.51, Olympic heats, 2024 - with 38 men in the middle of them on the all-time world ranks

Cameron McEvoy - 20.88 World Record 50m Free - Cielo’s 2009 Shiny Suit Standard Sunk

At The China Open in Shenzhen, Australian Olympic and World 50m freestyle champion has cracked the 20.91 global mark set by Brazil’s Cesar Cielo in the dying days of the short-lived shiny suits crisis in 2009

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Today in Tashkent, McEvoy turned 0.1sec inside his best to the turn from last week, when he matched Crooks' 9.55 record split. After 9.45, the Australian came home in 10.68. The runway to a sub-20 is in place for next week's conclusion of the 2026 Cup. Closest to him today was last week's 100m winner and world-record matcher Egor Kornev, and McEvoy's Dolphin mate and a team captain Isaac Cooper:

Steenbergen At The Dutch Double

The next biggest headliner of day 1 in Tashkent was Marrit Steenbergen, with a Dutch double of victories, first in the 50m backstroke and then in European-record time in the 100m medley.

Here's that record swim, Steenbergen inside her own standard off 56.26 from the continental winter showcase last December, and Belgium's Roos Vanotterdjik on 56.68, a national record inside her previous best of 56.80, and the last of the 900-plus-point swims:

Steenbergen delved the only swim of that 900-plus calibre in the backstroke dash, on 25.70 (946).

Men's 400m freestyle - Foster Tops Henveaux on 3:37s

As it was in Baku ... Carson Foster and Lucas Henveaux battled to a tight finish on 3:37s as the only two in the final over the 900-point mark:

In other events...

In the men's 100m breaststroke, Kirill Prigoda's 55.98 (962) led five men over 900. He was followed by American Luke Barr (56.42), Dutch ace Caspar Coprbeau (56.50), China's Qin Haiyang (56.85), and Aleksandr Zhigalov (57.05).

The other winners in swims that breached the 900-point mark:

• Women's 200m butterfly - Yu Yiting (CHN) 2:02.75 (918)
• Women's 50m freestyle: Katarzyna Wasick (POL) 23.63 (901), followed by Taylor Ruck (CAN) 23.68 (896)
• Women's 200m breaststroke - Evgeniia Chikunova 2:17.23 (900)

And that concluded the class of 900-plus.

• RESULTS IN FULL