# Swimming at the 2002 Commonwealth Games – Men's 50 metre freestyle

The Men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games was held on 3 and 4 August at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world record was as follows;
| World record | Alexander Popov (RUS) | 21.64 | Moscow, Russia | 1 June 2000 |
| Commonwealth record | | | | |
| Games record | | | | |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 3 August | Semifinal | Roland Schoeman | South Africa | 22.52 | GR |
| 3 August | Semifinal | Brett Hawke | Australia | 22.29 | GR |

## Results
### Heats

The 16 fastest swimmers in the heats qualified for the semifinals.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | Brett Hawke | Australia | 22.67 | Q |
| 2 | 7 | 4 | Roland Schoeman | South Africa | 22.88 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | 4 | Ashley Callus | Australia | 22.93 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | 5 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa | 23.10 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | 3 | Nicholas Folker | South Africa | 23.26 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 6 | Craig Hutchison | Canada | 23.27 | Q |
| 7 | 7 | 5 | Mark Foster | England | 23.33 | Q |
| 7 | 6 | 5 | Matt Kidd | England | 23.33 | Q |
| 9 | 6 | 6 | Chris Cozens | England | 23.37 | Q |
| 10 | 7 | 6 | Matthew Rose | Canada | 23.43 | Q |
| 11 | 7 | 2 | Todd Pearson | Australia | 23.59 | Q |
| 12 | 6 | 2 | Brent Hayden | Canada | 23.61 | Q |
| 12 | 6 | 8 | Chrysanthos Papachrysanthou | Cyprus | 23.61 | Q, |
| 14 | 7 | 7 | Stavros Michaelides | Cyprus | 23.66 | Q |
| 15 | 5 | 2 | Steven Evans | Wales | 23.80 | Q |
| 16 | 4 | 5 | Jonathan Winter | New Zealand | 23.89 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 7 | Alexis Militis | Jersey | 23.91 | |
| 18 | 6 | 3 | Ryan Pini | Papua New Guinea | 23.93 | |
| 19 | 5 | 3 | Carl Probert | Fiji | 24.04 | |
| 20 | 5 | 1 | Demetris Demetriou | Cyprus | 24.08 | |
| 21 | 6 | 1 | Musa Bakare | Nigeria | 24.21 | |
| 22 | 5 | 7 | Nicholas Sheeran | New Zealand | 24.29 | |
| 23 | 4 | 3 | Terrence Elton Haynes | Barbados | 24.37 | |
| 24 | 4 | 6 | Afolabi Adeleke-Adedoyin | Nigeria | 24.42 | |
| 25 | 7 | 1 | Christophe Lin Wen Ying | Mauritius | 24.43 | |
| 25 | 5 | 8 | Christopher Vythoulkas | Bahamas | 24.43 | |
| 27 | 7 | 8 | Cameron Gibson | New Zealand | 24.55 | |
| 27 | 4 | 4 | Roy-Allan Burch | Bermuda | 24.55 | |
| 29 | 4 | 8 | Mark Chay | Singapore | 24.63 | |
| 30 | 2 | 4 | Ramon James | Jamaica | 24.67 | |
| 31 | 6 | 8 | Cliff Gittens | Barbados | 24.70 | |
| 32 | 4 | 1 | Jamie Peterkin | Saint Lucia | 24.79 | |
| 33 | 3 | 4 | Nicholas Peterkin | Saint Lucia | 24.87 | |
| 34 | 4 | 2 | Ron Cowen | Bermuda | 24.96 | |
| 35 | 2 | 5 | Alan Jones | Isle of Man | 25.14 | |
| 36 | 3 | 5 | Kristoph Carey | Bahamas | 25.27 | |
| 37 | 3 | 7 | Hamid Nassir | Kenya | 25.46 | |
| 38 | 3 | 2 | Graham Alexander Campbell Smith | Bermuda | 25.48 | |
| 39 | 3 | 3 | Folahan Oluwole | Nigeria | 25.52 | |
| 40 | 3 | 1 | Rama Vyombo | Kenya | 25.58 | |
| 41 | 3 | 6 | Nicholas Diaper | Kenya | 25.59 | |
| 42 | 3 | 8 | Ben Lowndes | Guernsey | 25.82 | |
| 43 | 2 | 6 | Dave Batty | Isle of Man | 26.00 | |
| 44 | 2 | 3 | Angel Gonzalez | Gibraltar | 26.35 | |
| 45 | 2 | 7 | Craig Massey-Hicks | Malawi | 26.50 | |
| 46 | 2 | 1 | Jonathon Le Noury | Guernsey | 26.61 | |
| 47 | 2 | 8 | Andre Kuenzli | Zambia | 27.24 | |
| 48 | 1 | 5 | David Asser Korpela | Malawi | 27.36 | |
| 49 | 2 | 2 | Gerusio Matonse | Mozambique | 27.44 | |
| 50 | 1 | 3 | Yona Walesi | Malawi | 32.08 | |
| - | 1 | - | Joel Kisuule | Uganda | DSQ | |

### Semifinals

The eight fastest swimmers from the semifinals progressed to the final.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nation | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Roland Schoeman | South Africa | 22.52 | Q, GR |
| 2 | 5 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa | 22.62 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Craig Hutchison | Canada | 22.96 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Matt Kidd | England | 23.06 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Matthew Rose | Canada | 23.32 | |
| 6 | 7 | Stavros Michaelides | Cyprus | 23.66 | |
| 7 | 8 | Ryan Pini | Papua New Guinea | 24.10 | |
| 8 | 1 | Jonathon Winter | New Zealand | 24.13 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nation | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Brett Hawke | Australia | 22.29 | Q, GR |
| 2 | 6 | Mark Foster | England | 22.45 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Ashley Callus | Australia | 22.67 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Nicholas Folker | South Africa | 23.23 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Chris Cozens | England | 23.30 | |
| 6 | 7 | Chrysanthos Papachrysanthou | Cyprus | 23.38 | |
| 7 | 1 | Steven Evans | Wales | 23.77 | |
| 8 | 8 | Alexis Militis | Jersey | 23.92 | |

### Final

The final was held on 4 August at 17:30.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nation | Result |
| | 3 | Roland Schoeman | South Africa | 22.33 |
| | 4 | Brett Hawke | Australia | 22.34 |
| | 5 | Mark Foster | England | 22.47 |
| 4 | 6 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa | 22.49 |
| 5 | 2 | Ashley Callus | Australia | 22.67 |
| 6 | 1 | Matt Kidd | England | 22.93 |
| 7 | 7 | Craig Hutchison | Canada | 23.03 |
| 8 | 8 | Nicholas Folker | South Africa | 23.40 |