# Swimming at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 100 metre freestyle

The men's 100 m freestyle at the 2009 World Championships took place on 29 July (heats and semifinals) and the evening of 30 July (finals) at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and competition records were as follows:
| World record | Eamon Sullivan (AUS) | 47.05 | Beijing, China | 13 August 2008 |
| Championship record | Filippo Magnini (ITA) | 48.12 | Montreal, Canada | 28 July 2005 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 26 July | Heat 3* | Brent Hayden | Canada | 47.77 | CR |
| 26 July | Heat 4* | Stefan Nystrand | Sweden | 47.52 | CR |
| 26 July | Heat 5* | César Cielo Filho | Brazil | 47.39 | CR |
| 26 July | Final* | César Cielo Filho | Brazil | 47.09 | CR |
| 30 July | Final | César Cielo Filho | Brazil | 46.91 | WR |
* Split from the men's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay

## Results
### Preliminary heats

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Heat | Lane | Notes |
| 1 | David Walters | USA | 47.59 | 21 | 6 | |
| 2 | Stefan Nystrand | Sweden | 47.66 | 21 | 5 | |
| 3 | Lyndon Ferns | South Africa | 47.79 | 21 | 3 | AF |
| 4 | Alain Bernard | France | 47.80 | 22 | 4 | |
| 5 | Brent Hayden | Canada | 47.83 | 22 | 6 | |
| 6 | Frédérick Bousquet | France | 47.89 | 21 | 4 | |
| 7 | Evgeniy Lagunov | Russia | 47.92 | 20 | 2 | |
| 8 | César Cielo | Brazil | 47.98 | 22 | 5 | |
| 9 | Andrey Grechin | Russia | 48.13 | 20 | 4 | |
| 9 | Nathan Adrian | USA | 48.13 | 22 | 3 | |
| 11 | Duje Draganja | Croatia | 48.18 | 18 | 5 | |
| 12 | Nicolas Oliveira | Brazil | 48.22 | 21 | 1 | |
| 13 | Filippo Magnini | Italy | 48.23 | 20 | 3 | |
| 14 | Matt Targett | Australia | 48.26 | 20 | 5 | |
| 15 | Konrad Czerniak | Poland | 48.32 | 21 | 7 | |
| 16 | Joel Greenshields | Canada | 48.43 | 21 | 2 | |
| 17 | Matthew Abood | Australia | 48.45 | 19 | 4 | |
| 18 | Shaune Fraser | Cayman Islands | 48.47 | 18 | 3 | |
| 19 | Brett Fraser | Cayman Islands | 48.56 | 10 | 6 | |
| 20 | Simon Burnett | Great Britain | 48.57 | 20 | 6 | |
| 21 | Christian Galenda | Italy | 48.62 | 22 | 7 | |
| 22 | Steffen Deibler | Germany | 48.68 | 19 | 5 | |
| 23 | Roland Schoeman | South Africa | 48.69 | 22 | 1 | |
| 24 | Norbert Trandafir | Romania | 48.75 | 20 | 0 | NR |
| 25 | Nabil Kebbab | Algeria | 48.76 | 22 | 2 | |
| 26 | George Bovell | Trinidad and Tobago | 48.82 | 20 | 8 | NR |
| 27 | Paulius Viktoravičius | Lithuania | 48.84 | 19 | 7 | NR |
| 28 | Adam Brown | Great Britain | 48.90 | 22 | 0 | |
| 29 | Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or | Israel | 48.93 | 19 | 3 | NR |
| 30 | Alexei Puninski | Croatia | 49.08 | 18 | 6 | |
| 31 | Sebastiaan Verschuren | Netherlands | 49.12 | 21 | 0 | |
| 32 | Jason Dunford | Kenya | 49.16 | 22 | 8 | |
| 33 | Dominik Meichtry | Switzerland | 49.17 | 20 | 7 | |
| 33 | Albert Subirats | Venezuela | 49.17 | 21 | 9 | |
| 35 | Flori Lang | Switzerland | 49.20 | 20 | 9 | |
| 36 | Mindaugas Sadauskas | Lithuania | 49.26 | 16 | 5 | |
| 37 | Rammaru Harada | Japan | 49.28 | 19 | 1 | |
| 38 | David Dunford | Kenya | 49.34 | 14 | 3 | |
| 39 | Jacinto Ayala | Dominican Republic | 49.38 | 11 | 7 | NR |
| 40 | Martin Verner | Czech Republic | 49.39 | 22 | 9 | |
| 41 | Jakob Andkjær | Denmark | 49.43 | 18 | 4 | |
| 41 | Chen Zuo | China | 49.43 | 20 | 1 | |
| 43 | Petter Stymne | Sweden | 49.47 | 19 | 2 | |
| 44 | Ryan Harrison | Ireland | 49.49 | 17 | 8 | NR |
| 45 | Alexandre Agostinho | Portugal | 49.50 | 18 | 2 | |
| 46 | Romāns Miloslavskis | Latvia | 49.51 | 17 | 9 | |
| 46 | Yoshihiro Okumura | Japan | 49.51 | 19 | 0 | |
| 48 | Douglas Clark Lennox II | Puerto Rico | 49.62 | 10 | 3 | |
| 48 | Cai Li | China | 49.62 | 19 | 6 | |
| 50 | Yoris Grandjean | Belgium | 49.75 | 21 | 8 | |
| 51 | Barry Murphy | Ireland | 49.76 | 16 | 3 | |
| 52 | Andrei Radzionau | Belarus | 49.90 | 18 | 0 | |
| 53 | Ioannis Kalargaris | Greece | 49.92 | 18 | 1 | |
| 54 | Ryan John Pini | Papua New Guinea | 49.94 | 18 | 7 | |
| 55 | Marcin Tarczyński | Poland | 49.97 | 19 | 8 | |
| 56 | Paulo Santos | Portugal | 50.01 | 16 | 7 | |
| 56 | Roberto Gómez | Venezuela | 50.01 | 17 | 3 | |
| 58 | Andrii Hovorov | Ukraine | 50.04 | 17 | 6 | |
| 59 | Virdhawal Khade | India | 50.07 | 19 | 9 | |
| 60 | Martín Kutscher | Uruguay | 50.19 | 18 | 9 | |
| 61 | Dmytro Cherkasov | Ukraine | 50.22 | 1 | 3 | |
| 62 | Alexandre Bakhtiarov | Cyprus | 50.30 | 15 | 2 | |
| 63 | Emil Dall-Nielsen | Denmark | 50.32 | 17 | 1 | |
| 64 | Glenn Surgeloose | Belgium | 50.37 | 17 | 7 | |
| 65 | Mario Montoya | Costa Rica | 50.40 | 13 | 2 | NR |
| 66 | Jose Antonio Alonso | Spain | 50.41 | 18 | 8 | |
| 67 | Martin Spitzer | Austria | 50.43 | 15 | 8 | |
| 68 | Andrejs Dūda | Latvia | 50.45 | 14 | 6 | |
| 69 | Dominik Koll | Austria | 50.48 | 17 | 5 | |
| 70 | Vlad Razvan Caciuc | Romania | 50.51 | 15 | 4 | |
| 71 | Daniil Tulupov | Uzbekistan | 50.60 | 14 | 5 | |
| 72 | Kaan Tayla | Turkey | 50.62 | 17 | 2 | |
| 73 | Raúl Martínez Colomer | Puerto Rico | 50.65 | 15 | 3 | |
| 74 | Alex Villaecija | Spain | 50.66 | 16 | 6 | |
| 75 | Vladimir Sidorkin | Estonia | 50.71 | 17 | 4 | |
| 76 | Zoltan Povazsay | Hungary | 50.73 | 17 | 0 | |
| 77 | Julio Galofre | Colombia | 50.80 | 16 | 1 | |
| 78 | Daniel Bego | Malaysia | 50.86 | 13 | 6 | |
| 78 | Doğa Çelik | Turkey | 50.86 | 16 | 0 | |
| 80 | Elvis Burrows | Bahamas | 50.88 | 12 | 2 | NR |
| 81 | Artur Dilman | Kazakhstan | 50.88 | 16 | 2 | |
| 82 | Terrence Haynes | Barbados | 50.95 | 16 | 4 | |
| 83 | Juan Cambindo Romanos | Colombia | 50.96 | 14 | 4 | |
| 83 | Raphaël Stacchiotti | Luxembourg | 50.96 | 16 | 8 | |
| 85 | Aleksandar Nikolov | Bulgaria | 50.98 | 12 | 7 | |
| 86 | Martyn Forde | Barbados | 51.01 | 15 | 9 | |
| 87 | Hajder Ensar | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 51.08 | 14 | 7 | |
| 88 | Branden Whitehurst | Virgin Islands | 51.27 | 11 | 3 | NR |
| 89 | Mohammad Bidarian | Iran | 51.31 | 11 | 5 | |
| 90 | Bae Joonmo | South Korea | 51.54 | 12 | 3 | |
| 90 | Sebastián Jahnsen Madico | Peru | 51.54 | 14 | 1 | |
| 92 | Pasha Vahdati Rad | Iran | 51.65 | 8 | 4 | |
| 93 | Roy-Allan Burch | Bermuda | 51.68 | 12 | 8 | NR |
| 93 | Danil Haustov | Estonia | 51.68 | 16 | 9 | |
| 95 | Foo Jian Beng | Malaysia | 51.71 | 15 | 5 | |
| 96 | Vasilii Danilov | Kyrgyzstan | 51.81 | 15 | 6 | |
| 97 | Tan Xue Wei Nicholas | Singapore | 51.83 | 13 | 8 | |
| 98 | Sebastian Arispe Silva | Peru | 51.85 | 14 | 8 | |
| 99 | Jean-François Schneiders | Luxembourg | 51.86 | 13 | 5 | |
| 99 | Květoslav Svoboda | Czech Republic | 51.86 | 15 | 0 | |
| 101 | Jani Rusi | Finland | 51.88 | 14 | 9 | |
| 102 | Charles William Walker | Philippines | 51.92 | 13 | 0 | |
| 103 | Lim Clement | Singapore | 52.11 | 12 | 4 | |
| 104 | Mikael Koloyan | Armenia | 52.12 | 13 | 4 | |
| 105 | Cheah Geoffrey Robin | Hong Kong | 52.14 | 13 | 1 | |
| 106 | Miguel Nesrala | Dominican Republic | 52.21 | 12 | 0 | |
| 107 | Grant Beahan | Zimbabwe | 52.23 | 14 | 2 | |
| 108 | Petr Romashkin | Uzbekistan | 52.26 | 13 | 3 | |
| 109 | José Alberto Montoya | Costa Rica | 52.31 | 11 | 8 | |
| 110 | Brad Hamilton | Jamaica | 52.37 | 9 | 0 | |
| 111 | Mohammad Madwa | Kuwait | 52.40 | 15 | 1 | |
| 112 | Christopher Duenas | Guam | 52.45 | 12 | 5 | |
| 113 | Nicholas Thomson | Bermuda | 52.47 | 9 | 4 | |
| 114 | Norbert Trudman | Slovakia | 52.51 | 14 | 0 | |
| 115 | Sidni Hoxha | Albania | 52.54 | 11 | 1 | |
| 115 | Glenn Victor Sutanto | Indonesia | 52.54 | 13 | 9 | |
| 117 | Kang Yonghwan | South Korea | 52.62 | 10 | 1 | |
| 118 | Kouam Amine | Morocco | 52.64 | 11 | 4 | |
| 119 | Kendrick Uy | Philippines | 52.67 | 12 | 6 | |
| 120 | Luke Hall | Eswatini | 52.79 | 11 | 0 | |
| 121 | Salvador Mallat Arcaya | Chile | 52.86 | 9 | 6 | |
| 122 | Zane Jordan | Zambia | 52.92 | 10 | 4 | |
| 123 | Abdoul Khadre Mbaye Niane | Senegal | 52.96 | 10 | 7 | |
| 124 | Yan Ho Chun | Hong Kong | 52.97 | 11 | 2 | |
| 125 | Joao Matias | Angola | 52.99 | 9 | 1 | |
| 126 | Rodion Davelaar | Netherlands Antilles | 53.00 | 12 | 9 | |
| 127 | Serghei Golban | Moldova | 53.04 | 11 | 9 | |
| 128 | Endi Babi | Albania | 53.07 | 10 | 9 | |
| 129 | Fernando Castellanos | Guatemala | 53.19 | 8 | 0 | |
| 130 | Iuri Iazadji | Moldova | 53.26 | 12 | 1 | |
| 131 | Bojan Jovanov | Macedonia | 53.27 | 1 | 6 | |
| 132 | Sergej Naumovski | Macedonia | 53.30 | 1 | 1 | |
| 133 | Jonathan Wong | Jamaica | 53.35 | 9 | 5 | |
| 134 | Ashwin Menon | India | 53.41 | 9 | 8 | |
| 135 | Hycinth Cijntje | Netherlands Antilles | 53.46 | 8 | 5 | |
| 136 | Alexander Ray | Namibia | 53.61 | 7 | 6 | |
| 137 | Matar Samb | Senegal | 53.71 | 10 | 2 | |
| 138 | Humoud Alhumoud | Kuwait | 53.72 | 13 | 7 | |
| 139 | Achelhi Bilal | Morocco | 53.86 | 9 | 2 | |
| 140 | Rony Bakale | Congo | 53.92 | 8 | 2 | |
| 141 | Kareem Ennab | Jordan | 53.97 | 9 | 9 | |
| 142 | Lao Kuan Fong | Macau | 54.11 | 9 | 3 | |
| 143 | Allan Gutiérrez Castro | Honduras | 54.16 | 8 | 6 | |
| 144 | Yellow Yeiyah | Nigeria | 54.17 | 7 | 1 | |
| 145 | Samson Opuakpo | Nigeria | 54.28 | 6 | 6 | |
| 146 | Abbas Raad | Lebanon | 54.32 | 11 | 6 | |
| 147 | Harutyun Harutyunyan | Armenia | 54.39 | 8 | 3 | |
| 148 | Saeed Al Jesmi | United Arab Emirates | 54.76 | 7 | 4 | |
| 149 | Timothy Ferris | Zimbabwe | 54.78 | 10 | 8 | |
| 150 | Mohammed Al Ghaferi | United Arab Emirates | 54.83 | 8 | 8 | |
| 151 | Vincent Perry | Tahiti | 54.88 | 7 | 8 | |
| 152 | Colin Bensadon | Gibraltar | 54.94 | 6 | 3 | |
| 153 | Jean Hugues Gregoire | Mauritius | 54.96 | 7 | 5 | |
| 154 | Julien Brice | Saint Lucia | 55.00 | 5 | 1 | |
| 155 | Niall Christopher Roberts | Guyana | 55.08 | 6 | 4 | |
| 156 | Andrey Molchanov | Turkmenistan | 55.30 | 6 | 7 | |
| 157 | Gary Pineda | Guatemala | 55.34 | 6 | 1 | |
| 158 | Tsung Chao-Lin | Chinese Taipei | 55.40 | 9 | 7 | |
| 159 | Rashid Iunusov | Kyrgyzstan | 55.45 | 10 | 0 | |
| 160 | Esau Simpson | Grenada | 55.59 | 6 | 8 | |
| 161 | Moh'D Aqelah | Jordan | 55.74 | 8 | 7 | |
| 162 | Edward Caruana Dingli | Malta | 55.75 | 6 | 5 | |
| 163 | Ignacio Quevedo Bubba | Bolivia | 55.95 | 5 | 3 | |
| 164 | Nicholas Coard | Grenada | 55.99 | 5 | 6 | |
| 165 | Ronny Vencatachellum | Mauritius | 56.00 | 7 | 0 | |
| 166 | Ahmed Jebrel | Palestine | 56.05 | 8 | 1 | |
| 167 | Shane Mangroo | Seychelles | 56.15 | 4 | 2 | |
| 167 | Anthony Clark | Tahiti | 56.15 | 8 | 9 | |
| 169 | Patricio Vera | Mozambique | 56.29 | 5 | 2 | |
| 170 | Sergeý Krowýakow | Turkmenistan | 56.59 | 5 | 5 | |
| 171 | Peter Popahun Pokawin | Papua New Guinea | 56.97 | 4 | 5 | |
| 172 | Chong Cheok Kuan | Macau | 57.35 | 6 | 2 | |
| 173 | Douglas Miller | Fiji | 57.43 | 5 | 8 | |
| 174 | Juan Carlos Sikaffy Diaz | Honduras | 57.52 | 6 | 0 | |
| 175 | Elaijie Erasito | Fiji | 57.64 | 5 | 9 | |
| 176 | Siu Kent Chung | Brunei | 57.96 | 5 | 0 | |
| 177 | Omar Jasam | Bahrain | 58.38 | 6 | 9 | |
| 178 | Jesse Nilon | Samoa | 58.56 | 4 | 4 | |
| 179 | Quenton Dupont | Eswatini | 58.69 | 4 | 3 | |
| 180 | Ahmed Salam Ali Al-Dulaimi | Iraq | 58.91 | 2 | 5 | |
| 181 | Adama Ouedraogo | Burkina Faso | 59.11 | 1 | 8 | |
| 182 | Michael Taylor | Marshall Islands | 59.24 | 4 | 1 | |
| 183 | Jake Villarreal | Marshall Islands | 59.39 | 4 | 8 | |
| 184 | Mark Paul Thompson | Zambia | 59.84 | 3 | 3 | |
| 185 | Edward Poppe | Guam | 1:00.05 | 4 | 6 | |
| 186 | Adam Viktora | Seychelles | 1:00.17 | 3 | 2 | |
| 187 | Shailesh Shumsher Rana | Nepal | 1:00.74 | 4 | 0 | |
| 188 | Fabian Gregory Binns | Guyana | 1:01.05 | 1 | 4 | |
| 189 | Sufyan Almalki | Bahrain | 1:01.25 | 3 | 1 | |
| 190 | Cooper Graf | Northern Mariana Islands | 1:01.30 | 3 | 4 | |
| 191 | Shin Kimura | Northern Mariana Islands | 1:01.86 | 3 | 5 | |
| 192 | Wei Ching Maou | American Samoa | 1:02.50 | 2 | 4 | |
| 193 | Shameel Ibrahim | Maldives | 1:02.64 | 3 | 7 | |
| 194 | Prasiddha Jung Shah | Nepal | 1:02.68 | 3 | 6 | |
| 195 | Ali Mohamed Raaidh | Maldives | 1:02.74 | 4 | 9 | |
| 196 | Samson Makere | Tanzania | 1:07.24 | 2 | 6 | |
| 196 | Koang Gatkos Gor | Ethiopia | 1:07.24 | 3 | 0 | |
| 198 | Kwizera Cedric | Burundi | 1:08.71 | 3 | 8 | |
| 199 | Barouf Ali | Comoros | 1:10.00 | 2 | 7 | |
| 200 | Nsumizi Alain Boris | Burundi | 1:12.70 | 3 | 9 | |
| 201 | Kokou Messan Amegashie | Togo | 1:14.79 | 2 | 9 | |
| 202 | Mohamed Bourhanta | Djibouti | 1:16.67 | 2 | 1 | |
| – | Lansana Sidibe | Guinea | DNS | 1 | 2 | |
| – | Itai Chammah | Israel | DNS | 1 | 5 | |
| – | Aiah Emerson Mansa Musai | Sierra Leone | DNS | 1 | 7 | |
| – | Mamadou Cisse | Guinea | DNS | 2 | 2 | |
| – | Leonel Matonse | Mozambique | DNS | 7 | 9 | |
| – | Saif Alaslam Saeed Al-Saadi | Iraq | DSQ | 2 | 3 | |
| – | Fernando Medrano | Nicaragua | DSQ | 7 | 2 | |
| – | Omar Núñez | Nicaragua | DSQ | 7 | 3 | |
| – | Alexandr Sklyar | Kazakhstan | DSQ | 15 | 7 | |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Heat | Lane | Notes |
| 1 | Alain Bernard | France | 47.27 | 1 | 5 | |
| 2 | César Cielo | Brazil | 47.48 | 1 | 6 | |
| 3 | Stefan Nystrand | Sweden | 47.53 | 1 | 4 | |
| 4 | Nicolas Oliveira | Brazil | 47.78 | 1 | 7 | |
| 5 | Brent Hayden | Canada | 47.88 | 2 | 3 | |
| 6 | David Walters | USA | 47.92 | 2 | 4 | |
| 7 | Lyndon Ferns | South Africa | 47.96 | 2 | 5 | |
| 8 | Frédérick Bousquet | France | 47.98 | 1 | 3 | |
| 9 | Filippo Magnini | Italy | 48.04 | 2 | 1 | NR |
| 10 | Nathan Adrian | USA | 48.13 | 1 | 2 | |
| 11 | Matt Targett | Australia | 48.15 | 1 | 1 | |
| 12 | Andrey Grechin | Russia | 48.18 | 2 | 2 | |
| 13 | Evgeniy Lagunov | Russia | 48.20 | 2 | 6 | |
| 14 | Konrad Czerniak | Poland | 48.22 | 2 | 8 | |
| 15 | Duje Draganja | Croatia | 48.25 | 2 | 7 | |
| 16 | Joel Greenshields | Canada | 48.73 | 1 | 8 | |

### Final

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Lane | Time | Notes |
| | César Cielo Filho | Brazil | 5 | 46.91 | WR |
| | Alain Bernard | France | 4 | 47.12 | ER |
| | Frédérick Bousquet | France | 8 | 47.25 | |
| 4 | Brent Hayden | Canada | 2 | 47.27 | NR |
| 5 | David Walters | United States | 7 | 47.33 | NR |
| 6 | Stefan Nystrand | Sweden | 3 | 47.37 | NR |
| 7 | Lyndon Ferns | South Africa | 1 | 47.94 | |
| 8 | Nicolas Oliveira | Brazil | 6 | 48.01 | |