After day one of the 2014 Orlando Grand Prix was dominated by internationals, and especially the two Hungarians Hosszu and Verraszto, Friday could be more of the same.
The best battles of the day should be the women’s 200 fly, where Katinka Hosszu and Canadian veteran Audrey Lacroix matchup, and the men’s 50 free, where Cesar Cielo and Bruno Fratus from Brazil will take on the likes of Americans Cullen Jones and Jimmy Feigen, with a few other big names thrown in (Britain’s Adam Brown, for example).
After those two races, the day will roll into the 100 back, the 400 free, the 200 breast, and some 800 free relay action.
Women’s 200 Fly – Prelims
To little surprise, the top two seeds for tonight’s final will be Canada’s Audrey Lacroix and Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu. The pair bring plenty of international experience and were able to cruise to early wins in the circle-seeded heats. Lacroix, last year’s meet champ and current meet record-holder, is first in 2:11.25; Hosszu sits second with a 2:13.54.
The third seed goes to Canada’s Katerine Savard, who won the 100 fly over Lacroix last night.
Cal’s Caitlin Leverenz is also safely into the A final with a 2:17.11 for 6th. Joining her are a pair of 15-year-olds: Lauren Case of Chattahoochee and Delaney Walz of Greater Philadelphia Aquatic Club.
A couple more big names: American Olympian Claire Donahue barely snuck into the B final, taking 16th in 2:21.22. Just behind her and swimming in the C tonight will be new Florida Gator Theresa Michalak.
Men’s 200 Fly – Prelims
The men’s race looks like a rematch at the top of last night’s 400 IM, with American Tyler Clary taking on Hungarian David Verraszto. Though Verraszto dominated the IM last night, Clary takes the top seed for the butterfly, going 2:01.08. Verraszto is 2:03.65 in a tie for the third seed with Yeziel Morales of Puerto Rico. The 2-seed is 20-year-old Canadian Alec Page of Island Swim Club.
Florida high schooler Joseph Schooling went 2:04.82 for the fifth seed for tonight. He represents Singapore in international competition. In fact, 7 0f the top 8 swimmers in this event are foreign athletes, with Clary the only American in the top 10. Other A finalists are Luiz Pedro Ribeiro Pereira (Brazil), Eric Hedlin (Canada) and David Arias Gonzalez (Colombia).
Women’s 50 Free – Prelims
Amanda Kendall continues to power her way back to the nation’s elite swimmers. After a good performance in the 100 fly on Thursday, she took the top seed in the women’s 50 free on Friday morning as well in 25.63.
That swim as actually within .02 seconds of her lifetime best, and she’s now posted the three best swims of her career since returning to swimming after an inauspicious end to her college career.
The 2nd seed went to SwimMAC’s Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, of the Bahamas, in 25.84. Two Canadians were the 3rd and 4th seeds; Sandrine Mainville and Victoria Poon were both 25.9’s. They’re training partners at the club PPO in Montreal, a program that’s been reported as in danger of losing Canadian funding, but they continue to push through with success at these Grand Prix meets.
Melissa Gates is the 5th seed in 26.08, and Megan Romano was 6th in 26.09. 15-year old Fernanda Delgado was 7th in 26.26, and SwimMAC’s Katie Meili was 8th in 26.36.
Men’s 50 Free – Prelims
Brazil’s two top sprinters when healthy are Cesar Cielo and Bruno Fratus. It’s been a while since they’ve both been healthy at the same time, but with both now feeling good and training in the United States, they looked strong in prelims of the 50 free in Orlando.
Bruno Fratus was a 22.24 for the #1 seed, which knocked almost two-tenths of a second off of Anthony Ervin’s Meet Record set last year. Cielo was a ways behind, in relative terms, with a 22.55, but that will still give him a center lane for finals.
Jimmy Feigen was the 3rd seed in 22.69. followed by fellow American Karl Krug in 22.88. Adam Brown was 5th in 22.93, Miguel Ortiz was 7th in 22.94, and Auburn commit Renzo Tjon a Joe was 8th in 22.98.
Of those top 8, only three are Americans, but all 8 train in the United States.
Women’s 100 Back – Prelims
Interestingly, Katinka Hosszu, dealing with event limits, dropped the 100 fly (a stroke that historically is more in her wheelhouse) and kept the 100 back (a stroke that she’s still very good at) at this meet. She took the 2nd seed in that race with a 1:02.21, behind Great Britain’s Lizzie Simmonds in 1:01.31. Both are capable of broaching the minute barrier, even in February, so that should be a good battle in finals.
Another 200 backstroker, Canadian Dominique Bouchard, is the 3rd seed in 1:02.54, and her countrymate Hilary Caldwell was 4th in 1:02.63.
Megan Romano was a 1:03.09 for the 5th seed, and T2 Aquatics’ 16-year old Elise Haan, the only junior in the top 8, was 6th in 1:03.28.
Men’s 100 Back – Prelims
Germany’s Yannick Lebherz was only 5th in the 100 back at last year’s Orlando Grand Prix. But even with a similar time this year, he’s going into finals as the top seed with a drastically different field.
It is not a field totally without competition, however. Arkady Vyatchanin, the man without a country, is the 2nd seed in 56.11; Junya Koga from Club Wolverine is 3rd in 56.45; and Germany’s Carl Schwarz was 4th in 56.73.
Overall, this was somewhat of a lackluster prelims round, but as we saw on Thursday, the men have been saving their best for finals.
Women’s 400 Free – Prelims
Some of the slower heats of the 400 free prelims are still being worked through, but the big stars are mostly done, which includes the top-seed Chloe Sutton. Sutton was pleased with her swim in the 200 on Thursday, and so a 4:12.93 in prelims of the 400 should leave her fairly pleased as well, as it will give her the center lane headed into finals.
Meanwhile, Katinka Hosszu took advantage of the allowed triple on Friday, and swam the 400 free in 4:13.24 for the 2nd seed. Thus far, they are followed by Courtney Harnish in 4:14.99, which is just shy of her lifetime best at 14 years old. Her target meet is likely Y Nationals in a few weeks, so she could do some really spectacular yards swims at that meet based on what she’s done here.
Men’s 400 Free – Prelims
The Canadian Olympic medalist Ryan Cochrane took the top seed in the men’s 400 free, with a 3:54.36, coming out of prelims. He’ll be one of a trio that should push forward in finals tonight, with American Michael McBroom having been a 3:57.21 in 2nd and Hungary’s David Verraszto in 3rd in 3:58.16.
There were a few other young, successuful swims in this race. 18-year old Mexican Andres Alejos was a 3:58.95. The young Alejos has a chance of joining the tradition of one of Mexico’s best recent male swimmers, Arturo Perez Verti, who’s also a distance swimmer.
Women’s 200 Breast – Prelims
A group of 200 breaststrokers did really well in the sprint distance on Thursday, and now they’re back in their wheelhouse with a solid prelims performances.
Micah Lawrence took the top seed in 2:30.80, followed by three NCAA Champions in the 200 yard breaststroke Laura Sogar (2:31.04), Alia Atkinson (2:34.70), and Caitlin Leverenz (2:35.82).
A pair of in-state teenagers came in behind them, with Sydney Pickrem from the Clearwater Aquatic Team (2:36.54) and Olga Lapteva from the Bolles School (2:36.84)as the 5th and 6th seeds. Justine Bowker (Mueller in a past life) is the 7th seed in 2:37.06, and Mercedes Toledo from Venezuela rounds out the A-Final in 2:37.48.
Men’s 200 Breast – Prelims
American Sean Mahoney, who appears to be back at Bolles, is the top seed in the 200 breaststroke in 2:15.30. This is his first Grand Prix meet of the season, and he looks much better here than his last time in the water in January (he was a 2:25 then in the 200 breast at a senior circuit meet).
There aren’t a ton of male 200 breaststrokers at this meet, so Mahoney’s only competition for this title, and the $500 prize check that goes with it, should be Melquides Alvarez Caraballo, who is also representing Bolles at this meet, and was a 2:15.90 in prelims.
Brazilian Felipe Lima is the 3rd seed in 2:18.42.
With this kind of body 0 or 2% body fat, she has to do weights and running for 6 to 9 month,
but she been racing about every week for last 6month and getting better its hard to believe.
Just saying….
I think a way how people are throwing in these weakly-based accusations is getting ridicilous.
The minimum requirement for such should be to do it with one’s own name and contact information visible. It’s an absolute display of cowardice to do it behind a nickname. The athletes deserve a better protection from that.
That pic . Hahaha heeheehee.
Adam Ritter went 2:19 is the 200 breast? I thought he retired like two years ago. What’s that guy’s deal anyway?
Do we have beef already bro?! Come at me brah!
http://swimswam.com/the-katinka-hosszu-swimming-photo-vault/
This was less than 2 years ago. It doesnt even look like the same body. Not saying she is. But this a huge transformation.
Go Delaney Waltz!!!
That picture doesn’t help convincing me she’s 100% clean.
Please stop….
If being ripped is a prove of not being clean.. let´s take ALL dara torres medals.. at 40 she was more ripped than most of the athletes..
I think you’d find plenty of people who are very skeptical of Dara, myself included.
Dara Torres is one of the most ridiculous cases of double standards I’ve ever seen in sports. It’s great to be white, female, American, and a mother…you would have to be a Satan worshipper to call her character into question. The perfect cover for the most obvious case of doping the swimming world has ever know.
Where is your proof? Oh that’s right…. YOU DON’T HAVE ANY!!!!!
not definitive proof by any means, but visiting a known steroid dealer named Anthony Galea in Canada sure doesn’t look good. (and no I don’t care about her explanation). another interesting client of Galea was Tiger Woods.
I may be incorrect, but I think she signed up for “Project Believe” and took extra drug tests in 2008.
Where is your proof?
Can you 100% prove that she didn’t juice up?
She never failed a drug test.
Not just her massive physical transformation, which is blatantly obvious, but also her her non-stop swimming schedule. I don’t know, it’s starting to raise red flags with me.
There is a time and a place
The questions that the skeptics need to ask themselves (and there’s certainly not anything wrong with being skeptical, as performance enhancing drugs are all over the place in sports), is what evidence do you want to see to prove that an athlete is clean?
A skeptic who allows for no avenue for someone to verify their fact is simply a contrarian.
Blood testing? More frequent drug testing? Submitting all financial records to some independent review panel? There’s no guarantee that any athletes will agree to any of that (we can all see the risks not related to doping with all of the above), but to me that’s a more interesting conversation than “she’s obviously doping because she’s fast/strong” against “I… Read more »
you raise a good point and it’s a hard question to answer. I certainly would like to see more frequent OOC testing and use of the CIR testing to help combat testosterone use. (testosterone is still the biggest loophole in olympic style drug testing.) One thing that is worrisome from other sports is how governing bodies can be complicit or look the other way when it comes to testing and positive tests. See the UCI in cycling, USA track and field, Jamaica Track and field, the lack of testing by the ITF in tennis. I want to believe FINA is vigilant, but are they? I don’t know the answer.
one thing I would like to see implemented is what… Read more »
“There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.” –Alfred Korzybski
Thanks Braden Keith. Not only do the endless discussions about specific suspicions without evidence get boring, but they rarely get resolved and can be destructive. If you step back we’re all in the same boat: As fans it can be demoralizing to find out a favorite swim star was doping so, as per the quote above, we usually employ one of two psychological defenses to avoid getting depressed or getting pooled:
1) ignore it and err on the side that most swimmers aren’t doping, or
2) Be suspicious of everyone, to avoid the… Read more »
i think raising red flags is constructive, which is why I posted that picture. do you know how difficult it is for a woman to put on that kind of bulk without the aid of PED’s? considering males produce almost 8 times as much testosterone as women, it’s really freaking hard. especially for someone who swims as often as a top level swimmer. not normal.
and she also swam in a group that has what, 4 or 5 positive drug tests in the past? these are red flags. not indicators of guilt, but surely enough to make one start to question. and questions are good.
Again, tne problem is, this is all old news; pics and rumors and questions about Hozzsu have been circulating for years, although they may be new to you if you’re new to the swim site/blog scene. Also, Hozzsu hasn’t flunked any tests yet and isn’t on trial, so your suspicions will be lost to the ether unless you generalize it: Questions are good if they lead to action. So what will you do with the good constructive ideas that you have? Can fans, parents, officials, be added as representatives to whatever organized bodies dictate testing/punishment policies for doping? Coaches, swimmers, and politicians/administrators are not the only ones with good ideas.
Check it out to see if your voice can… Read more »
http://www.waterinstinct.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/KatinkaHosszu-1.jpg
how dare you be skeptical!!
Like I said, there is a time and a place. This is not a good time.
and why is that? given the prevalence of doping in professional sports, I think it is healthy for fans to be skeptical when they see things that are out of the ordinary. you don’t get to tell me when it is a good time.
Actually I just did. When there is an article on doping, that is the time to make those comments. End of story. Bye bye. See you later.
What, would suspicion number 2 by any chance be “swimming fast?”
If being athletic and fast is a crime we don’t really have much of a sport.
Feliz con la representación de mi sobrino