2015 Junior World Championships: Day 2 Prelims Preview

2015 WORLD JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, August 25th – Sunday, August 30th
• OCBC Aquatic Centre, Singapore
• Prelims 10 am (GMT+8)/ in USA = previous day 10 pm EDT, 7 pm PDT
• Finals 6 pm (GMT+ 8)/ in USA = 6 am EDT, 3 am PDT
• Psych Sheet
• Meet Website
• ‘Live’ Stream – EuroVision
• Live Results

Day 2 is set to start up at the World Junior Swimming Championships in Singapore. Here are a few races to watch for in the morning heats:

Boys 200 Free

American Maxime Rooney broke the junior world record just a few weeks ago in San Antonio, and he leads all swimmers by 1.7 seconds on the psych sheet. Rooney has ties to southeast Asia, specifically the Philippines, and now will look for his first Junior World title in front of the Singaporean crowd.

But he’ll have to contend with Italy’s Alessandro Miressi, who leads the heat right before Rooney’s. Also in that heat, watch out for American Grant Shoults, who blew up in the 400 free final on day 1.

Girls 100 Free

We’ll get to see a number of the stars of last night’s 4×200 free relay suit up again in prelims, with the more sprint-oriented 100 free looming. That field includes top seed Arina Openysheva, part of a dominating group of Russian youth swimmers who have had a great summer.

She’ll tangle with Australia’s Shayna Jack in the final heat – Jack was a part of the junior world record-setting Aussie relay last night. And don’t sleep on Canada’s Taylor Ruck, who put up a truly world-class split in helping Canada earn silver last night.

One heat before, we get a look at Japan’s Rikako Ikee and American Stanzi Moseley, and the first circle-seeded heat is led by Australian relay record-breaker Lucy McJannett.

Boys 100 Fly

The boys 100 fly should be loaded up with big names, starting with Russia’s Daniil Pakhomov. Pakhomov has been right on the edge of 51 seconds all summer, and with a big swim, could challenge the junior world record of 51.33. He takes on Team USA’s Ryan Hoffer.

The other US swimmer in that event is Michael Andrew, who is attracting a lot of attention for his jam-packed event lineup. Andrew will swim twice in prelims (three times if he’s on the mixed medley), but potentially five times in the evening session, with finals of the 100 back and 100 breast, plus finals of the 200 IM and semifinals of the 100 fly (if he qualifies this morning) and again potentially a leg on the mixed medley relay.

Andrew is part of another USA vs Russia showdown in prelims of the 100 fly, lining up next to Daniil Antipov in heat 7 of 9. Spain’s Alberto Lozano leads the heat in between.

Girls 200 fly

American teammates lead the top circle-seeded heat, with top-seeded Cassidy Bayer alongside Hannah Kukurugya. 

Bayer is one of three swimmers coming in with a seed time under 2:10. Japan’s Haruno Ito is the top qualifier into the second-to-last heat, and the heat prior is led by Australian Tamsin Cook, who broke the meet record in the 200 free while leading off the junior world record-setting 4×200 free relay last night.

Also competing this morning will be the boys 200 IM, the mixed 4×100 medley relay and the early heats of the girls 800 free.