Breatstroke World Record holder Ruta Meilutyte lept to 2nd-place in the 2015 World Rankings in the women’s 100 long course meter breaststroke on Saturday evening at the Sheffield Premier Open gala in Sheffield, England.
Meilutyte swam a 1:05.99 to win the girls 15 & over final, running-away, and to leave herself a tenth-of-a-second behind Yulia Efimova’s world-leading 1:05.89 from last weekend.
2014-2015 LCM Women 100 Breast
MEILUTYTE
1.05.46
| 2 | Yuliya EFIMOVA | RUS | 1.05.60 | 08/03 |
| 3 | Katie MEILI | USA | 1.05.64 | 07/17 |
| 4 | Alia ATKINSON | JAM | 1.06.21 | 08/03 |
| 5 | Jinglin SHI | CHN | 1.06.28 | 08/03 |
This is the earliest in any season that Meilutyte has been under the 1:06 barrier; in 2014, she did so in mid-April at the British Championships, which at the time was also an anomaly as compared to the two years prior, though her end-of-season wasn’t as successful on the back of that early speed.
The Lithuanian, trained at local club Plymouth Leander, was the biggest star at this meet, though she wasn’t the only international-level swimmer present.
In the men’s 50 free, her Plymouth teammates Ben Proud and Mindaugas Saduaskas went head-to-head with Proud winning in 22.27 and the former American collegiate standout Saduaskas taking 2nd in 22.86.
Saduaskas, who is Meilutyte’s countrymate, got his revenge in the 100 free with a 51.39 victory to Proud’s 51.85.
Besides the swimmers in the elite international category, there were a lot of big swims from the younger age groups as well.
In the boys 14 & under 200 meter breaststroke, 13-year old Oliver Taverner swam a 2:29.95 to grab a win over a field of mostly 14-year olds.
The boys’ 14 & under 100 backstroke was stacked with talent, led by Harry Constantine from Hatfield (1:00.29) and Joseph Small from Elesmere (1:01.07). Those are easily the two best times in the age group in 2015, and Constantine’s swim moves him up to 17th-place all-time among British 14-year olds.
20-year old Loughborough swimmer Sophie Smith won the women’s 50 fly in 17.40 ahead of Plymouth’s Charlotte Atkinson (27.50), and later in the day also topped the 100 fly in the same order (1:00.10-1:00.39).
Another standout Plymouth woman, Shauna Lee, won the women’s 15 & over 200 free in 2:00.61.
Canadian PanAm/World Trials this week. Psych sheets have been released. Lots of foreign athletes coming to Toronto, including some guys who just finished up the NCAA meet.
Taylor Ruck entered in 10 events, all freestyles, 50, 100, 200 back, 200, 400 IM. Hoping to see Samantha Corea carry over her success from NCAA.
Great swim by Meilutyte! So impressive since it is so early in the season. Also, at the end of the article I assume you meant 27.40, not 17.40 (unless she started trom the middle of the pool lol)