Aug. 05--It had been a struggle for Kevin Cordes in major international competitions.
The breaststroker from Naperville cost the U.S. team a gold medal when he left the blocks too early on his medley relay leg at the 2013 World Championships. He also had a subpar swim in the 100-meter breaststroke at that meet, finishing seventh after posting the second fastest time in the semifinals, and failed to make the finals of the 50 and 200.
At last year's Pan Pacific Championships, he was disqualified in the 100 breaststroke for removing his goggles after they filled with water (but later won a gold medal on the medley relay.)
So it was encouraging for Cordes not only to get through his first five races at the 2015 worlds without incident but also to win two medals Wednesday in Kazan, Russia, albeit in events not on the Olympic program.
And those performances provided early validation of his June move to train in Singapore.
Cordes took bronze in the 50 breaststroke after setting a U.S. record for the event in Tuesday's semis. And he won a silver medal in the mixed gender medley relay, a new event on the worlds program that has women and men each swimming two of the four legs.
"It means a lot (to win a medal)," Cordes said after the 50. "It feels great."
Cordes, 21, the two-time NCAA men's swimmer of the year who finished a record-breaking college career at Arizona this spring, joined coach Sergio Lopez in the Singapore Swimming Association's (SSA) Foreign Athlete Sparring Program.
"The purpose of the program," according to the Singapore Sports Institute, "is to raise the standards of Singapore Swimming athletes to world class levels and also to enable them to have an understanding of what it takes to be world class in terms of training standards and attitudes."
Cordes is the program's pioneer foreign athlete. He expects to stay for at least the year leading to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"Cordes will raise the bar," read a headline in the Singapore Straits Times in a story about his arrival.
He has at least one more event left at worlds, the 200 breaststroke, which begins Thursday. Given how mediocre were the swims of the two U.S. men in the 100 breaststroke, Cordes also could get consideration for the men's medley relay.
-- Winnetka's Conor Dwyer needed to win a swim-off to make Thursday's final of the 200 individual medley.
Dwyer and Roberto Pavoni both clocked 1 minute, 58.54 seconds in the semifinals, tying for eighth. The top eight, based on time, advance to the final.
They went head-to-head about 50 minutes later, with Dwyer winning by just .08 seconds in 1:58.18.
Ryan Lochte of the U.S., seeking a fourth straight world title in the 200 IM, was the fastest semifinalist (1:56.81) despite easing up at the finish.
Dwyer had missed the final of his other individual event, the 200 free, getting ninth in the semis. He was silver medalist in that race two years ago.
"It's not my best meet but (I'm) happy to be here with Tram USA trying to compete at our best," he said.
