Day Two of competition at the 2014 Short Course World Championships will feature several compelling races, including the debut of mixed relays at these Championships.
The session will begin with the heats of the Men’s 4×50 Medley Relay, and we will get a chance to see some quick action early on, especially from Great Britain. Their morning relay is listed as a combination of Chris Walker-Hebborn, Adam Peaty, Adam Barrett, and Benjamin Proud, and it is difficult to see that relay changing much between prelims and finals. Considering that Walker-Hebborn is the oldest member of this relay at the spry young age of 24, it will be very exciting to see how such a young team swims in the morning. They will have plenty of competition of course, especially with the Americans right on their shoulder amongst other talented quartets from Italy, Japan, and Russia to name a few.
After the absolutely dominant display the Dutch women put up last night in the 4×200 freestyle relay, it’s tough to see anyone challenging Femke Heemskerk or Ranomi Kromowidjojo in the 100 free. However, if Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom can shake off her subpar swims yesterday in the 200 fly and in the finals session of the 4×200 free relay, she can be as tough to beat as anyone in the sprints. Sjostrom does have a double today, though, as she will also be headling the 50 fly event just two events later.
Japan’s Kosuke Hagino has already put up some strong swims on Day 1, and the 400 IM may be his race to lose even in the preliminary session. Hagino’s versatility has been nigh-unmatchable in recent years, and his closest competition will come from teammate, Daiya Seto. Both swimmers are the only ones seeded under 4:00 in this event, and Seto is the reigning long course and short course World Champion in this event.
Perhaps one of the most anticipated swims of the entire meet is the men’s 50 free where Russia’s Vladimir Morozov, Brazil’s Cesar Cielo, and France’s Florent Manaudou will all get a chance to flex their muscles in their specialty races after fantastic day one swims from all three of them.
Morozov led off Russia’s 4×100 free relay last night in a meet record of time of 45.51, including an opening 50 split of 21.50 to a flip, so we know that he’ll be ready for the shorter sprint race. Cielo was a 45.53 off a relay start in the morning session yesterday for the Brazilians and Manaudou was a sizzling 44.80 on the third leg of France’s victorious relay last night. Notably, Manaudou flipped to a 20.75, and considering that the world record in the 50 free SCM is a 20.30 from back in 2009 by Roland Schoeman, we may have a new all-time sprint king by the time the 50 free final swims tomorrow night.
Katinka Hosszu will compete in the 100 IM this morning, and she’ll get some competition from none other than breaststroke queen Ruta Meilutyte herself, although Meilutyte will headline the penultimate heat while Hosszu will race in the final heat. This is another event that Hosszu holds the world record in, and considering how fast she has been taking out her prelims swims, we could see her throw down a world-class time in a morning swim once again.
2014 Short Course World Championships
- Meet website
- Doha, Qatar
- December 3-7, 2014 (Wednesday through Sunday)
- Prelims 9:30 am / Finals 6:00 pm (local time)
- Start Lists
- Live results
- Live photo stream
MEN’S 4 x 50 MEDLEY RELAY – PRELIMS
World Record: 1:33.65 – Italy – 20131:32.78 – Russia – 2014
One race into the session and we already have a world record. The Russian relay consisting of Stanislav Donets (23.73), Sergei Geibel (25.96), Aleksandr Popov (22.47), and Evgeny Sedov (20.62) combined to set the new record at 1:32.78.
Despite having a very consistent and all-around good relay, the Russians did not actually have the fastest split on any of the legs when compared with the rest of the teams in the field outside of Sedov’s fantastic anchor split. Also, France (1:33.10), the United States (1:33.25), and Brazil (1:33.48) all cleared the old World Record as well with Great Britian just missing at 1:33.87. Rounding out the last 3 qualifying spots for finals are South Africa (1:34.43), Lithuania (1:34.81), and Japan (1:34.99)
As impressive as Russia’s record is, there is a very good chance that the record will be shattered once again tonight. Russia did not have Morozov on their relay and the addition of Manaudou, Cielo, and numerous other superstars from other countries will drastically change how the event pans out tonight.
The United States broke the American record this morning with their swim as Matt Grevers (23.37), Bradley Craig (26.46), Tom Shields (22.29), and Josh Schneider (21.13) teamed up for the effort. The previous record extended all the way back to 2004 when Aaron Peirsol (24.34), Brendan Hansen (26.59), Ian Crocker (21.81), and Garrett-Weber Gale (21.84) set the record at the NCAA Division 1 Championships.
Event results in PDF format here
WOMEN’S 100 FREESTYLE – PRELIMS
- 2012 World Champ: 52.31 – Britta Steffen – Germany
- 2010 World Champ: 51.45 – Ranomi Kromowidjojo – Netherlands
- Meet Record: 51.45 – Ranomi Kromowidjojo – Netherlands – 2010
- World Record: 51.01 – Libby Trickett – Australia – 2009
Unsurprisingly, the top 3 seeds entering this event maintained a stranglehold atop the 100 free this morning. Sarah Sjostrom and Femke Heemskerk both turned in top times of 52.44 to lead all prelims swimmers. Not far behind is Heemskerk’s teammate, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, in a 52.66.
Rounding out the rest of the top 8 are Australia’s Bronte Campbell (52.67), the United States’ Shannon Vreeland (52.80), Sweden’s Michelle Coleman (52.81), Italy’s Erika Ferraioli (52.87), and Russia’s Veronika Popova (53.01).
High school senior and future California Bear Abbey Weitzeil got her first taste of short course meter competition today with a 9th place finish at 53.08. She will receive an opportunity to snag a spot in the big heat when she races it again tonight in the semifinal.
MEN’S 400 IM – PRELIMS
- 2012 World Champ: 3:59.15 – Daiya Seto – Japan
- 2010 World Champ: 3:55.55 – Ryan Lochte – United States
- Meet Record: 3:55.55 – Ryan Lochte – United States – 2010
- World Record: 3:55.55 – Ryan Lochte – United States – 2010
Kosuke Hagino cruised to a 4:02.13 to claim the top spot in the 400 IM this morning. Despite Hagino having a relatively conservative approach to the race, the final heat ended up being quite competitive with Tyler Clary (4:02.27), Sebastien Rousseau (4:02.71), and David Verraszto (4:02.97) following immediately after.
The rest of the top 8 was comprised of Japan’s Daiya Seto (4:03.73), Russia’s Semen Makovich (4:06.31), Israel’s Gal Nevo (4:06.56), and the United States’ Michael Weiss at 4:07.47.
Event results in PDF format here
WOMEN’S 50 BUTTERFLY – PRELIMS
- 2012 World Champ: 25.14 – Lu Ying – China
- 2010 World Champ: 24.87 – Therese Alshammar – Sweden
- Meet Record: 24.87 – Therese Alshammar – Sweden – 2010
- World Record: 24.38 – Therese Alshammar – Sweden – 2009
Sarah Sjostrom retained her top seed in the 50 fly with the top time this morning in a 25.08. Given that she swam the 100 freestyle about an hour earlier, it’s safe to say that she had plenty of time to recover between races, and she held a three-quarters of a second margin over the rest of her heat.
Following behind her were Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen at 25.39 and the Netherlands’ Inge Dekker at 25.61. Both swimmers have already been under 25 seconds this year, so it is very likely that they have plenty of speed left in the tank for tonight’s semifinal, and just did enough to win their respective heats thsi morning.
Filling out the rest of the top 8 are China’s Lu Ying (25.69), Italy’s Silvia Di Pietro (25.66), Brazil’s Daynara de Paula (25.81), and a three-way tie between China’s Qiu Yuhan, Poland’s Aleksandra Urbanczyk , and the United States’ Felicia Lee at 25.83.
Event results in PDF format here
MEN’S 50 FREESTYLE – PRELIMS
- 2012 World Champ: 20.55 – Vladimir Morozov – Russia
- 2010 World Champ: 20.51 – Cesar Cielo – Brazil
- Meet Record: 20.51 – Cesar Cielo – Brazil – 2010
- World Record: 20.30 – Roland Schoeman – South Africa – 2009
Cesar Cielo grabbed the top time in prelims with a 21.00 effort this morning. He was pushed throughout by Italy’s Marco Orsi (21.02) who was right on his shoulder in heat 17.
As expected, the rest of the top 16 qualifiers filed in very tightly. Rounding out the top 8 were Russia’s Vladimir Morzov (21.08), the United States’ Josh Schneider (21.11), France’s Florent Manaudou (21.11), Russia’s Oleg Tikhobaev (21.20), Ukraine’s Andrii Govorov (21.24), and Japan’s Shinri Shioura (21.25).
With a spread so tight, it’s impossible to call who’s favored going into the semifinal heats tonight. Cielo, Morozov, and Manaudou all did what they needed to do to sit in good position when they compete again tonight, but Orsi and Schneider are well within the picture as well.
Orsi is right off his own national record of 20.93 from the 2009 European Championships, so it is great to see him approaching his speed from the body-suit era.
Event results in PDF format here
WOMEN’S 100 IM – PRELIMS
- 2012 World Champ: 58.49 – Katinka Hosszu – Hungary
- 2010 World Champ: 58.95 – Ariana Kukors – United States
Meet Record: 58.49 – Katinka Hosszu – Hungary – 201256.99 – Katinka Hosszu – Hungary – 2014- World Record: 56.86 – Katinka Hosszu – Hungary – 2014
Katinka Hosszu continued to roll with a new meet record in the 100 IM with her top-ranked 56.99 effort this morning. This rattled her own World Record from the beginning of September, and also demolished her old meet record of 58.49 from 2012. Thanks to her early speed, she established a lead in the fly and never looked back with almost a full second margin ahead of the rest of the field.
After conceding the 400 IM title and world record to Spain’s Mireia Belmonte Garcia last night, Hosszu may have a chip on her shoulder when it comes to the rest of the IM events at this meet. Considering how well she split her race this morning (26.22/30.76, both fastest in the meet), it may be a tall order to ask the rest of the field to challenge her tonight.
Following behind Hosszu is Great Britain’s Siobhan-Marie O’Connor (57.98, broke her own national record of 58.26), Israel’s Amit Ivry (58.77), the United States’ Melanie Margalis (58.77), Australia’s Emily Seebohm (58.78), Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson (59.16), Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte (59.27), and Finland’s Hanna-Maria Seppala (59.66).
Atkinson and Meilutyte both had outstanding second 50’s with splits of 31.03 and 31.16 respectively. Only Hosszu was faster with a 30.77 back half. Considering that both swimmers also tend to get faster as the heats progress, we can expect to see them move up in the semis tonight.
Also of note, Israel’s Ivry is just off her own national record of 58.66 from last year’s Doha stop of the World Cup.
MEN’S 4 X 200 FREESTYLE RELAY – PRELIMS
- 2012 World Champ: 6:51.40 – United States
- 2010 World Champ: 6:49.04 – Russia
- Meet Record: 6:49.04 – Russia – 2010
- World Record: 6:49.04 – Russia – 2010
Italy takes the top time in the morning as Mitch D’Arrigo (1:43.45), Marco Belotti (1:43.97), Nicolangelo Di Fabio (1:43.84), and Filippo Magnini (1:43.44) for a leading 6:54.70 effort.
They had some competition within their own heat as they were chased by the United States (6:55.03), Brazil (6:55.50), and Russia (6:56.72) from heat 1. Rounding out the last 4 qualifying spots are Russia (6:56.72), South Africa (6:58.03), Denmark (6:58.65), and Germany (6:59.40).
As we have seen in a lot of morning relay swims this meet, a lot of superstars were withheld from the prelim lineups. The United States did not use Ryan Lochte or Conor Dwyer this morning, and Tom Shields is also a viable option if necessary.
Event results in PDF format here
MIXED 4 X 50 MEDLEY RELAY – PRELIMS
- World Record: 1:37.17 – United States – 2013
Great Britain’s quartet of Chris Walker-Hebborn (23.47), Adam Peaty (25.78), Siobhan-Marie O’Connor (25.59), and Fran Halsall (23.32) combined to post the top morning time at 1:38.16. Both Peaty’s breaststroke split and Halsall’s freestyle split were the fastest for their respective gender and position in the field, thus keying the British relay win in the morning.
Following in suit is the United States (1:38.78), Italy (1:38.91), Russia (1:39.37). Brazil (1:39.60), Germany (1:40.08), Ukraine (1:40.35), and the Czech Republic (1:40.77).
I think D’Arrigo beat his previous PB by more than 1 second. He is improving. Of course when the big guys enter the pool, it’s going to be a different story for Italy’s relay
Notably, Joao de Luca absolutely smashed it on his leadoff leg in the 200m. 1:42.02 is very fast – enough for Bronze I think in the individual – and he ‘died’ in the last 50m with a 27:x split. He went out in 48.83!
He’s a very good short course swimmer. Learned a thing or two from his days in the NCAA>.