Jesse Washington placed third in heat six and 69th overall out of 120 swimmers in a time of 51.67sec in the 100 metres freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, yesterday.

The fastest time of the 16 semi-final qualifiers from the 13 heats was set by Caeleb Dressel, of the United States, who clocked 47.35 to win heat 11.

Washington touched the halfway mark in fourth at 24.69, behind race winner Mokhtar al-Yemeni, of Yemen, Benyamin Gharehhassanloo, of Iran, and Abdul Niane, of Senegal, but was able to reel in only the African.

Al-Yemeni clocked 51.16 and Gharehhassanloo 51.49, while the time needed to reach the semi-finals was 48.77.

Washington is representing Bermuda at the championships along with Elan Daley and Madelyn Moore.