Guy and Proud book semi-final places in Rio

James Guy and Ben Proud both booked their semi-final places with great swims on day 6 of the Rio Olympic Games.

Lifetime best for Guy in 100m Butterfly

James Guy swam a lifetime best 51.78 to secure his place in the 100m Butterfly semi-finals.

The Millfield swimmer, who won silver in the 4x200m Freestyle relay earlier in the week, was third at the turn but dominated the final 50m to touch the wall first. He goes through as the joint eighth fastest qualifier with China’s Zhuhao Li.

Guy said: “It was just about getting up and racing this morning and seeing what I’ve got. It’s all good preparation for the medley relay on the last day and I feel like I’m in a good place.

“I want to have that fly speed on me. It was 0.4 under my personal best so obviously the hard work does pay off. It’s just one of those things I suppose but it’s nice to have a personal best under the belt from this meet.”

Proud books his place in 50m Free semi-finals

Plymouth Leander’s Ben Proud secured his place in the 50m Freestyle semi-finals with a great heat swim.

The Commonwealth Champion had a spectacular start in lane 3 and held his pace amongst a very quick field.  He touched in 21.83 to finish joint third with Canada’s Santo Condorelli and go through in to the semi-final joint seventh.

Proud said: “It was my first 50m [race] so a lot of it was blowing out the cobwebs and making sure I got a ticket for the semi-final.

“Coming in tonight there’s not going to be any room for error. I’m joint seventh so if I’m any slower I will be out of the final.

“I have to be quicker and I will be looking to move that swim on tonight. I don’t see why I can’t break my British record. I feel in good shape so it’s just about getting that race right tonight.”