World University Games: Smith Breaks 400 Freestyle Games Record

2015 WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES

• July 4th-July 11th, 2015 (Saturday-Saturday)
• Gwangju, South Korea
• Prelims 8:30AM/Finals 7PM (local time)
• Prelims 7:30PM (day before)/Finals 6AM (U.S. Eastern Time)
• Full meet preview
• The official FISU feed (finals only): http://www.livefisu.tv
• In the United States: ESPN3.com
• Results

DAY FOUR PRELIM EVENTS:

• Women’s 400 freestyle
• Women’s 200 breaststroke
• Men’s 100 freestyle
• Women’s 100 butterfly
• Women’s 4 x 200 free relay

Women’s 400 freestyle

American Leah Smith came into the games with the fastest entry time of 4:06.28, which she posted at the United States National Championships last summer. Smith made sure that the other participants know that she is the woman to beat putting up a time of 4:04.66 to take the final heat in this morning’s prelims.

Smith’s time beats Federica Pellegrini‘s games record time of 4:06.11 by almost a second and a half. Pellegrini set the record in 2007.

Smith had a season’s best of 4:07.45 which was ranked 20th in the world, with her swim this morning she nows moves into the fourth place position in the world rankings.

Italian Martina De Memme finished second in the final heat of the morning over six seconds behind the American. Lindsay Vrooman took heat three in a time of 4:11.96.

Asami Chida of Japan qualified with the fifth fastest time of 4:13.85 followed by Australian Kiah Melverton (4:14.20), Justyna Burska of Poland (4:15.00), Italian Martina Rita Caramignoli (4:16.29) and Canadian Barbara Rojas-Jardin (4:17.97).

Women’s 200 breaststroke

American Molly Hannis won heat four in a time of 2:27.77. She was followed by fellow American Andrea Cottrell who touched in a time of 2:28.65. Hannis was almost a second off her lifetime best of 2:26.80 which she posted in February. Cottrell beat her previous lifetime best of 2:28.78.

Reona Aoki of Japan, who came into the competition with the fastest entry time of 2:25.43 won the final heat in a time of 2:28.80.

Italian Francesca Fangio qualified with the fourth fastest time of 2:28.98 followed by Keiko Fukudome of Japan (2:29.12), Martina Moravcikova of the Czech Republic (2:29.22), Olivia White of Great Britain (2:29.37) and South African Franko Jonker (2:29.93).

The rest of the top 16 include:

Adeline Martin, FRA (2:30.21), Suyeon Back, KOR (2:30.46), Jessica Hansen, AUS (2:30.90), Ilaria Scarcella, ITA (2:30.91), Jessica Eriksson, SWE (2:32.47), Laura Simon, GER (2:32.96), Natasha Lloyd, NZL (2:33.67) and Alona Ribakova, LAT (2:33.84).

Men’s 100 freestyle

Heat nine of the men’s 100 freestyle was a battle of the Americans as teammates Seth Stubblefield and Jack Conger faced each other. Stubblefield took the first 50 meters out in a time of 23.24 29 one-hundredths of a second ahead of Conger who turned in a time of 23.53.

Conger had the quicker second 50 catching Stubblefield with both men placing their hands on the wall in a time of 49.51.

Italian Marco Belotti took the final heat in a time of 49.84.

Reo Sakata of Japan posted the fourth fastest qualifying time of 49.94 he was followed by Henrique Martins of Brazil (49.96), Mattia Dall Aglio of Italy (49.96), Russian Oleg Tikhobaev (50.12) and Daniel Hunter of New Zealand (50.24).

The rest of the top 16 include:

Toru Maruyama, JPN (50.35), Kemal Arda Gurdal, TUR (50.42), Samuel Perry, NZL (50.45), Junehyuck Yang, KOR (50.45), Travis Mahoney, AUS (50.46), Douglas Erasmus, RSA (50.47), Doga Celik, TUR (50.48) and Jacob Hansford, AUS (50.52).

Women’s 100 butterfly

Russian Svetlana Chimrova qualified for the women’s 100 butterfly final with the fastest qualifying time of 58.84. She was followed by 50 butterfly champion Lu Ying of China who posted a 59.02 and Italian Elena Di Liddo who hit the wall in a time of 59.24.

American Felicia Lee had the fourth fastest qualifying time of 59.27.

Katarina Listopadova of Slovakia had the fifth fastest qualifying time followed by Danielle Villars of Switzerland (59.44), Zhou Yilin of China (59.46) and Rino Hosoda of Japan (59.56)

The rest of the top 16 include:

Christina Bechtel, USA (1:00.04), Paulina Schmiedel, GER (1:00.12), Alina Kashinskaya, RUS (1:00.21), Samantha Lee, AUS (1:00.22), Helena Gassoon, AUS (1:00.25), Jacomie Strydom, CAN (1:00.34), Birgit Koschischek, AUT (1:00.39) and Samantha Corea, CAN (1:00.47).