World record bettered at Enhanced Games, Missile flops
Roger Vaughan and Steve Larkin |
Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev has gone under the 50m freestyle world record time at the inaugural Enhanced Games.
Gkolomeev clocked 20.81 seconds, bettering the 20.88 world mark set by Australian Cam McEvoy in March. But Gkolomeev’s time will not count because he took banned substances.
It was the only sub world-record time set on Monday (AEST) in Las Vegas at the Games, which promotes performance-enhancing drugs.
Gkolomeev won a $US1 million bonus for going under the world record time. The 50m freestyle was the last event on the Games program.
While Gkolomeev dominated, also winning the 100m freestyle, it was a disappointing event for Australia’s only competitor James Magnussen.
The 35-year-old, the first athlete signed to the Enhanced Games, finished last out of four competitors in the 50m and 100m freestyle.
Magnussen clocked 22.35 seconds for the 50m and 49.44 for the 100, outside the personal-best times he set more than a decade ago in the two events.
Gklolomeev won the 100m in 46.6, just outside the world record time of 46.4 set by China’s Pan Zhanle at the Paris Olympics.
The financial lure was substantial for Magnussen, a two-time Olympian and dual 100m freestyle world champion who retired from swimming in 2018, until the arrival of Enhanced Games.
Track and field sprinting and weightlifting were also on the program.
There was $US250,000 ($A358,000) prizemoney on offer for race winners; and a $US1 million ($A1.4 million) bonus for bettering the 100m freestyle or 50m world record times.
Melbourne-born entrepreneur, Aron D’Souza, founded the Games and since left the company that became The Enhanced Group.
On May 8 the company officially launched on the New York Stock Exchange with a reported $1.2 billion enterprise valuation.
The performance-enhancing drugs being taken by Magnussen and other athletes are being marketed and sold by The Enhanced Group.
AAP