2015 FINA World Championships: Day One Finals Live Recap

2015 FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Pool swimming: Sunday, August 2nd – Sunday, August 9th
• Prelims 9:30AM/Finals 5:30PM (Local Time)
• Kazan Arena Stadium
• Kazan, Russia (UTC+3 hours)
• Full coverage
• All sport medal tables
• Live stream (Universal Sports)
• Schedule and Results

Women’s 100m Butterfly – Semi-finals

• 2013 World Champion: Sarah Sjostrom, SWE – 56.53
• World Record: 55.98 – Dana Vollmer, USA – 2012
• Championship Record: 56.06 – Sarah Sjostrom, SWE – 2009

Starting off the 2015 FINA World Championships with a bang, Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden posted the fastest time of the evening in the women’s 100 butterfly, breaking the world record with her time of 55.74. That time lowers Dana Vollmer’s world record of 55.98 from 2012, and is the second swim in history under 56 seconds.

Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen finished second with her time of 57.04, and China’s Lu Ying finished third with her time of 57.36. Her teammate, Chen Xinyi, also secured her spot in the final with a 57.63, also a World Junior Record, that was good for sixth.

Canada’s Katerine Savard is locked into the final in fourth, but her teammate Noemie Thomas is in the hot seat. Thomas tied for eighth with Inge Dekker of the Netherlands at 58.05 and a swim off is required.

Emma McKeon of Australia and Alexandra Wenk of Germany are the other two swimmers that made finals in fifth and seventh.

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Men’s 400m Freestyle – FINALS

• 2013 World Champion: Sun Yang, CHN – 3:41.59
• World Record: 3:40.07 – Paul Biedermann, GER – 2009
• Championship Record: 3:40.07 – Paul Biedermann, GER – 2009

GOLD: Sun Yang, CHN 3:42.58
SILVER: James Guy, GBR 3:43.75
BRONZE: Ryan Cochrane 3:44.59

Winning the first Gold Medal of the Championships, Sun Yang powered through the men’s 400m freestyle, winning with a time of 3:42.50. Great Britain’s James Guy won the silver medal with a 3:43.75, and Canada’s Ryan Cochrane secured the bronze medal with a 3:44.59.

It was a very close race for third, but Connor Jaeger of the United States ended up on the wrong side of the touch, finishing fourth with a 3:44.81.

Peter Bernek of Hungary and Wojciech Wojdak of Poland both finished with 4:46’s, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. Germany’s Clemens Rapp finished seventh at 4:48.52, and Michael McBroom finished eighth with a 3:51.94.

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Women’s 200m IM – Semi-finals

• 2013 World Champion: Katinka Hosszu, HUN – 2:07.92
• World Record: 2:06.15 – Ariana Kukors, USA – 2009
• Championship Record: 2:06.15 – Ariana Kukors, USA – 2009

Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu broke the European Record en route to claiming the top seed of the women’s 200 IM. The Hungarian posted the fastest time of the semi-final with a 2:06.84, which is the second fastest time in history.

Men’s 50m Butterfly – Semi-finals

• 2013 World Champion: Cesar Ceilo, BRA – 23.01
• World Record: 22.43 – Rafael Munoz, ESP – 2009
• Championship Record: 22.67 – Milorad Cavic, SRB – 2009

Florent Manadou of France was the only swimmer of the day to break 23 seconds in the men’s 50 butterfly. He will lead the field into finals with a 22.84. That sets himself up well to get within striking distance of breaking the Championship Record.

Brazil put two swimmers into finals with Nicholas Santos and Cesar Cielo. Santos posted the second fastest time of 23.05 and Cielo snuck in for eighth at 23.29.

Laszlo Cseh of Hungary and Konrad Czerniak of Poland were third and fourth at 23.06 and 23.07, respectively.

• 2013 World Champion: Katie Ledecky, USA – 3:59.82
• World Record: 3:58.37 – Katie Ledecky, USA – 2014
• Championship Record: 3:59.15 – Federica Pellegrini, ITA – 2009

Katie Ledecky continues to defy the odds and impress swimming fans around the world, by making a sub-4:00 400 look easy.

Ledecky ran away with the final, breaking Pellegrini’s championship record of 3:59.15 with her time of 3:59.13. She has the fastest time in the field by four seconds leading into finals.

Sharon Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands finished second with a strong 4:03.02, finishing just ahead of Jessica Ashwood, who grabbed the bronze with a time of 4:03.34.

Jaz Carlin finished outside the medals for fourth at 4:03.74, while Lauren Boyle of New Zealand finished fifth with her time of 4:04.38.

The last group to round out the final were Melani Costa (ESP), Diletta Carli (ITA), and Boglarka Kapas (HUN). All three finished between 4:06 and 4:08.

PDF Results

Men’s 100m Breaststroke – Semi-finals

• 2013 World Champion: Christian Sprenger, AUS – 58.79
• World Record: 57.92 – Adam Peaty, GBR – 2015
• Championship Record: 58.52 – Adam Peaty, GBR – 2015

Great Britain’s Adam Peaty appears to be on pace to break the World Record in the men’s 100 breaststroke for the second time this year after breaking the World Championship record twice in one day. He broke the initial record in prelims with a 58.52, and then lowered it again during finals to 58.18.

His teammate, Ross Murdoch, also qualified for finals with an eighth place time of 59.75.

Cameron Van Der Burgh of South Africa was not too far behind Peaty, finishing at 58.49 during the semi-final. He will be in lane 5, which will set up a fun race between the two stars.

Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay – Finals

• 2013 World Champion: United States – 3:32.31
• World Record:  3:31.72 – Netherlands – 2009
• Championship Record: 3:31.72 – Netherlands – 2009

The sisters Campbell are carrying the Australian women to new heights, as Bronte Campbell and Cate Campbell back ended their relay to a new Championship Record, finished at 3:31.48. That broke the old Netherlands World Championships’ Record of 3:31.72 set in 2009.

Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay – Finals

• 2013 World Champion: France – 3:11.18
• World Record: 3:08.24 – United States – 2008
• Championship Record: 3:09.21 – United States – 2009

The French quartet of Mehdy Metella, Florent Manaudou, Fabien Gilot, and Jeremy Stravius were able to hold off Russian squad, upsetting them in front of a home crowd. France touched the wall first, winning the gold medal with their time of 3:10.74.

Take a look at the splits below:

• Mehdy Metella – 48.37
• Florent Manaudou – 47.93
• Fabien Gilot –  47.08
• Jeremy Stravius –  47.36

Russia’s relay earned the silver medal with their time and nearly ran down the French squad thanks to Vlad Morozov. On the third leg of the relay, Morozov split 46.95, which was the fastest split from any swimmer in the field. With his 46.95 split, he will be one of the favorites to win the individual 100 freestyle later in the week, although we can’t count out Nathan Adrian and Cameron McEvoy, who didn’t have a chance to swim after the United States and Australian relays failed to qualify for finals.

PDF Results