Fellow Australian Isaac Cooper finished in fifth place (21.77).

“Of course I wanted the gold medal and you always want to post good times so in that respect I am a little disappointed,” McEvoy told reporters.

“I would have liked to have gone a little bit better in the final but I’ve got to be happy after the butterfly too earlier in the week.

“My main goal for this meet was to come here and see how fast I can go. Overall,it was a good week. The nature of the 50 free is that one little thing goes wrong and things kind of skew out.

“But this is all part of the process and to accumulate data ahead of Paris … but if I was to tell my 2016 to 2022 self that I would be standing here right now,just 0.01 off a second world title … I’d be super proud.”

There certainly won’t be panic in McEvoy’s camp,five months out from Paris. McEvoy is the only person to go under 20.2 since Caeleb Dressel banged out a time of 21.04 at the US trials in 2021 ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

Dressel has barely raced since Tokyo but is expected to come back with a bang.

Meanwhile,Australia secured two more silver medals on Saturday,with Dolphins youngster Jaclyn Barclay clocking a personal best in the 200m backstroke before the mixed 4x100 freestyle relay team finished second behind China.

With backstroke queen Kaylee McKeown opting to sit out of Doha,as well as a number of other medal contenders in Paris,Barclay touched the wall in 2:07.03,behind the USA’s Claire Curzan (2:05.77).

In the mixed relay,Kai Taylor got Australia off to a perfect start by laying down a big personal best of 48.01 before Jack Cartwright,Shayna Jack and Brianna Throssell steered the Dolphins (3:21.78) to a silver medal behind China (3:21.18).