# Swimming at the 2002 Commonwealth Games – Men's 100 metre freestyle

The Men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games was held on 1 and 2 August at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world record was as follows;
| World record | Pieter Van Den Hoogenband (NED) | 47.84 | Sydney, Australia | 19 September 2000 |
| Commonwealth record | | | | |
| Games record | | | | |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 1 August | Semifinal | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 49.31 | GR |
| 2 August | Final | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 48.73 | GR |

## Results
### Heats

The 16 fastest swimmers in the heats qualified for the semifinals.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 49.76 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | 5 | Matt Kidd | England | 50.00 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | Todd Pearson | Australia | 50.07 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | Ashley Callus | Australia | 50.16 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 3 | Brent Hayden | Canada | 50.17 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | 6 | Craig Hutchison | Canada | 50.54 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 3 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa | 50.59 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | 6 | Anthony Howard | England | 50.89 | Q |
| 9 | 3 | 3 | Chris Cozens | England | 51.17 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | 5 | Nicholas Folker | South Africa | 51.19 | Q |
| 11 | 3 | 2 | Alexandros Aresti | Cyprus | 51.96 | Q |
| 12 | 5 | 2 | Carl Probert | Fiji | 52.41 | Q |
| 13 | 4 | 7 | Demetris Demetriou | Cyprus | 52.45 | Q, |
| 14 | 5 | 1 | Steven Evans | Wales | 52.74 | Q |
| 15 | 3 | 1 | Ron Cowen | Bermuda | 52.77 | Q |
| 16 | 5 | 7 | Damian Alleyne | Barbados | 52.80 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 2 | Mark Chay | Singapore | 52.89 | |
| 18 | 3 | 7 | Moss Burmester | New Zealand | 53.21 | |
| 19 | 4 | 1 | Christopher Vythoulkas | Bahamas | 53.32 | |
| 20 | 5 | 8 | Christophe Lin Wen Ying | Mauritius | 53.90 | |
| 21 | 2 | 2 | Afolabi Adeleke-Adedoyin | Nigeria | 54.22 | |
| 22 | 2 | 4 | Alan Jones | Isle of Man | 54.72 | |
| 23 | 3 | 8 | Roy-Allan Burch | Bermuda | 54.86 | |
| 24 | 4 | 8 | Jamie Peterkin | Saint Lucia | 54.90 | |
| 25 | 1 | 4 | Musa Bakare | Nigeria | 55.38 | |
| 26 | 2 | 5 | Nicholas Diaper | Kenya | 55.50 | |
| 27 | 1 | 5 | Kristoph Carey | Bahamas | 55.56 | |
| 28 | 1 | 6 | Ben Lowndes | Guernsey | 55.67 | |
| 29 | 1 | 2 | Folahan Oluwole | Nigeria | 56.23 | |
| 30 | 2 | 7 | Jean Francois Wai Choon | Mauritius | 56.52 | |
| 31 | 2 | 6 | Rama Vyombo | Kenya | 56.56 | |
| 32 | 2 | 1 | Eric Williams | Nigeria | 56.74 | |
| 33 | 2 | 3 | Hamid Nassir | Kenya | 56.75 | |
| 34 | 1 | 3 | Angel Gonzalez | Gibraltar | 57.29 | |
| 35 | 1 | 7 | Andre Kuenzli | Zambia | 58.77 | |
| 36 | 2 | 8 | Craig Massey-Hicks | Malawi | 1:00.07 | |
| 37 | 1 | 1 | Joel Kisuule | Uganda | 1:04.17 | |

### Semifinals

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

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nation | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Matt Kidd | England | 49.72 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Ashley Callus | Australia | 50.05 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Craig Hutchison | Canada | 50.28 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Nicholas Folker | South Africa | 50.60 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Anthony Howard | England | 51.00 | |
| 6 | 8 | Damian Alleyne | Barbados | 52.49 | |
| 7 | 7 | Carl Probert | Fiji | 52.82 | |
| 8 | 1 | Steven Evans | Wales | 52.89 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nation | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 49.31 | Q, GR |
| 2 | 6 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa | 49.91 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Todd Pearson | Australia | 50.13 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Brent Hayden | Canada | 50.45 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Chris Cozens | England | 51.44 | |
| 6 | 7 | Alexandros Aresti | Cyprus | 52.35 | |
| 7 | 8 | Ron Cowen | Bermuda | 52.49 | |
| 8 | 1 | Demetris Demetriou | Cyprus | 52.63 | |

### Final

The final was held on 2 August at 19:25.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nation | Result | Notes |
| | 4 | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 48.73 | GR |
| | 6 | Ashley Callus | Australia | 49.45 | |
| | 3 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa | 49.71 | |
| 4 | 5 | Matt Kidd | England | 49.99 | |
| 5 | 2 | Todd Pearson | Australia | 50.12 | |
| 6 | 1 | Brent Hayden | Canada | 50.17 | |
| 7 | 7 | Craig Hutchison | Canada | 50.40 | |
| 8 | 8 | Nicholas Folker | South Africa | 51.00 | |