Drama Unfolds as Shaine Casas Defeats Michael Andrew to Clinch 100M Butterfly Gold at Knoxville Pro Series

Shaine Casas was supposed to be one of the shining stars of the US Olympic team in Tokyo. But the youngster missed the berth after a dismal show at the selections. Later in an interview, he accepted being overconfident in himself on that occasion. “I failed for a specific reason. Maybe it was because I trusted myself a little too much, I guess,” he said. However, the loss had its positives as well. It made Casas more mature as an athlete. That individual came out after a break of two months from swimming, processing the Olympic loss. Since then, winning stories have been unfolding regularly.

One such story was woven in the 2024 TYR Pro Swim Series in Knoxville, Tennessee in the men’s 100m butterfly. The renewed version of Casas once again showed its color toppling Olympic gold medallist Michael Andrew.

Shane Casas keeps his fly title intact

USA Swimming tweeted a video showcasing the men’s 100m butterfly event unfolding via its official X account. The tweet carried the caption, “Shaine Casas was FLYING. His 51.40 is good for the #TYRProSeries 100 fly title.” With this win, Casas defended his previous year’s title in the event. However, in 2023, he won the 100m butterfly with a significantly better time of 51.05. Interestingly, the previous iteration of the Tyr Pro series also saw Michael Andrew lose out to Casas in another event. 

In 2023, Michael Andrew found himself losing against Shaine Casas in the 50m butterfly race. While Casas aced the event in 23.46 seconds, Andrew had to swallow a bronze with a time of 23.53 seconds. Meanwhile, Michael Andrew’s current defeat comes after his loss against Nic Fink in the men’s 100m breaststroke event. On top of it, Fink’s words rubbed a little salt on Andrew’s loss as he said that he “wasn’t paying attention” to other racers.

Michael Andrew was the top finisher in the prelims but was defeated by Fink. Now, a loss at the hands of Shaine Casas has added to the rolling drama at the Knoxville event. Especially because Andrew has been consistently ruling the TYR Pro Swim Series for quite some time now.

Fading dominance at the TYR Pro Swim Series for Andrew?

While Michael Andrew got bested twice in this contest, he lost by very small margins. He has taken several big losses in his career, including a 19th-place finish in a World Championship event. But the TYR Pro Swim Series has always been special for Andrew, as he has secured some of his biggest wins in these waters.

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Michael Michael Andrew ruled the 2020, 2021, and 2022 iterations of the event. However, he saw his first dethroning in the 2023 season. Interestingly, the man to beat him by a margin of 0.01 seconds last year was Nic Fink, who also stood tall against Andrew this year. Thus, Andrew failed to overcome the monsters he encountered in 2023 once again. Is this the end of Andrew’s dominance in the TYR series?

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