2017 FINA World Championships: Day 5 Prelims Preview

2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Day 5 prelims from Budapest will have five events on tap: the women’s 100 free, men’s 200 back, both the men’s and women’s 200 breast, and the women’s 4×200 free relay.

Up first will be the women’s 100 free, where newly minted world record holder Sarah Sjostrom will be back in action.

Sjostrom became the first woman ever under 52 seconds leading off Sweden in the 400 free relay in 51.71. She was already the big favorite coming into the meet, but that swim solidified it.

She’ll swim in the 8th and final heat, alongside 2012 and 2016 Olympic champions in the event, Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Penny Oleksiak.

Bronte Campbell will have lane 4 in heat 7 after posting a pair of quick relay legs in the free (52.14) and mixed medley (52.30) relays. She’ll be joined by 200 free gold medalist Federica Pellegrini, Australian Emma McKeon, who has been on excellent form here, and 2016 50 free Olympic champ Pernille Blume.

The first circle-seeded heat will have American representatives Simone Manuel and Mallory Comerford side-by-side. Both have been on fire through four days in Budapest, with Manuel producing a pair of 52.1 splits, while Comerford broke Manuel’s American record leading off the gold medal winning 400 free relay in 52.59. They’ll be joined by Sjostrom’s teammate Michelle Coleman, who had a solid 53.21 PB on the lead-off during Sweden’s prelim relay before splitting 52.68 in finals.

Next up will be the men’s 200 back, where we’ll see Russian Evgeny Rylov for the first time this week. Rylov scratched out of the men’s 100 back as a top 5 seed, and wasn’t used on Russia’s mixed medley relays either. The 20-year-old won bronze at both the 2015 World Championships and 2016 Olympics, and will be a major threat for gold assuming he’s healthy.

He’ll will swim in the 4th heat, joined by 2016 SC World champion Radoslaw Kawecki, American Jacob Pebley and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino.

Reigning Olympic champ Ryan Murphy will face-off with China’s Xu Jiayu in the 5th and final heat. Xu defeated Murphy in the 100 back on day 3. The first circle-seeded heat has defending champion Mitch Larkin alongside Ryosuke Irie, the 2nd fastest performer in history, and Junior world record holder Kliment Kolesnikov.

Eyes will be drawn to the 4th of 4 heats in the women’s 200 breast, as Yuliya Efimova and Lilly King will swim side-by-side after their showdown in the 100 breast, where King emerged victorious. Australia’s Taylor McKeown will be flanked by Brits Jocelyn Ulyett and Molly Renshaw in heat 3, and world record holder Rikke Pedersen goes head-to-head with Junior world record holder Viktoria Zeynep Gunes in heat 2.

The first of the circle-seeded heats in the men’s 200 breast will feature American Kevin Cordes, who has shown good form thus far in Budapest with a silver medal in the 100 breast. Hungarian Daniel Gyurta, the three-time champion, will also swim in heat 3 and will draw energy from the home crowd after missing the semi-finals last year in Rio. Sweden’s Erik Persson and Great Britain’s Ross Murdoch are also dangerous figures in the heat.

World record holder Ippei Watanabe, the only man to break 2:07, will take heat 4 alongside Olympic bronze medalist Anton Chupkov and his Russian teammate Ilya Khomenko. The final heat is stacked with top seed Yasuhiro Koseki, Olympic champion Dmitriy Balandin, and defending champion Marco Koch.

The women’s 4×200 free relay will be very interesting in the morning, with only ten teams entered, meaning only two won’t make it to the final. Adding to the intrigue is that they’ll all swim in the same heat.

Despite the lack of numbers, none of the country’s entered will be easy outs, so no one can slack off and expect to get in. Lineups will be released prior to the session.

You can check out all day 5 prelim start lists here.

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Pvdh
7 years ago

The heck is this Eurosport commentator talking about lol. 2:24 and she has nothing left to drop…? These guys know she did 2:21 right?

SchoolingFTW
7 years ago

I miss Bobo and her “American women sprint is dead!!” rants.

Bobthebuilderrocks
Reply to  SchoolingFTW
7 years ago

Bobo is a dude. Lol

SchoolingFTW
Reply to  Bobthebuilderrocks
7 years ago

Whaattt?!?

All this time I thought Bobo was a girl.

KRB
7 years ago

Does anyone have a good English live stream for prelims? I have been watching the Hungarian coverage the last several days.

swammer17
Reply to  KRB
7 years ago

NBC Sports Network as been streaming, only requires you to login through your tv provider.

Dee
7 years ago

I hope Lily King stares down Efimova in heats, just to let her know… Even in heats, I’m coming for you! She needs to rough Efimova up a bit, make her nervous – Only way she can win.

Opinions for men’s medley: We all know the US line up. Now, If CWH is worse than portrayed, do GBR throw in Litchfield? Outsplit Hagino in the 200im (28.8), was 52. SC over winter, and has undoubtedly improved since then. Risk it?

MTK
Reply to  Dee
7 years ago

They could use CWH in prelims, and if they really don’t like what they see, could take a risk on Litchfield for finals.

Dee
Reply to  MTK
7 years ago

Suspect that’s the thinking.

Iain
Reply to  Dee
7 years ago

Greenbank is there too, remember

Dee
Reply to  Iain
7 years ago

Yeah, he’d be very safe, but I think they’d have to take a risk on Litchfield to stay in the medals – Greenbank may well just be too far back. Litchfield’s backstroke looks *really* good… 28.8 is a Lochte/Hagino/Phelps split

nlm78
7 years ago

Hope Emma managed to get some sleep after an eventful day since she was on social media last night saying she couldn’t sleep etc. Meanwhile C2, wtf knows what she will serve up in the heats at this stage. She looked a tad buggered after the mixed medley (more than Emma) last night but that could have been my 4am lenses watching.

Torchbearer
Reply to  nlm78
7 years ago

I think Emma has a ‘silver’ rash developing as well….. 🙂

nlm78
Reply to  Torchbearer
7 years ago

At least that is better than skid marks from finishing out of the placings. 🙂

commonwombat
Reply to  nlm78
7 years ago

Would be interesting to see what SS puts down; if she lays down a very big marker (52flat or below); it will be interesting to see how the rest react.
Can’t see C2 getting thru 3 rounds, much as I would wish it otherwise.
Americans …. will be interesting to see how this plays out and any impacts of 4×200 on todays showings
Kromowidjojo teased us with a sub52 relay split but she has so often threatened to get back to sub53 in recent years without ever doing so. Will this be it ?
McKeon ….could go one of two ways. Is she starting to run out of gas or will her form hold through this… Read more »

nlm78
Reply to  commonwombat
7 years ago

Madi Wilson is definitely swimming the 4x200m relay because she just put on social media race day. So that is one place taken in the 4x200m for certain.

Hopefully for Emma’s sake they don’t put her in the relay heats today, because if they do she’ll most likely have four races today. Better to save her for the final as long as Australia get through and for the 4 x Mixed Free Relay and 4 x Medley Relay later on.

In a way I’d love for C2 to get there purely so C1 to get her revenge for the shade C2 threw in jest at her on the first night. Because you C1 is planning her revenge for that one.… Read more »

nlm78
Reply to  nlm78
7 years ago

AUS team is Wilson, Ngawati, Jack and Neale, So Emma smartly is being rested.

commonwombat
Reply to  nlm78
7 years ago

Can’t say that I’m overwhelmingly confident of that line up. Wilson has been swimming well recently and Jack has been impressive but NOT convinced that Ngawati is up to it and Leah Neale …… her record speaks for itself

They’ll almost certainly sneak an outside lane but realistically they only have McKeon that really strengthens the team. Titmus has immense promise but that currently looks to be at the longer distances. This may sound heretical but I’d personally rest McKeon tonight as they’re maybe only an outside shot at bronze … either that or tell her not to extend herself. Don’t want to see her completely out of petrol before the end of the meet

nlm78
Reply to  nlm78
7 years ago

Bwahaha C1 got her back in the mixed medley replay post-ceremony interview. That didn’t make the coverage due to time restrictions this morning. ?

MichaelTran
7 years ago

Xu Jiayu did not look superb last night!!! He had clean water but did not break 52. Rylov and Murphy will give him some good fights in 200m

E Gamble
Reply to  MichaelTran
7 years ago

No one broke 52. I wouldn’t say that means Xu didn’t look good? ?

Dawgpaddle
7 years ago

Sjostrom looks manly

KRB
Reply to  Dawgpaddle
7 years ago

She has been big and strong since she first emerged as a 15 year old at the World Championships in 2009. Other than her face has lost some of her baby fat and maybe getting slightly more defined, I don’t see a lot of difference in her body composition since then. And I don’t think she is any more muscular than any of the elite female swimmers. I think she is very attractive and not manly at all — and she seems to be a very nice person and competitor on top of everything she has accomplished in the pool.

SchoolingFTW
Reply to  Dawgpaddle
7 years ago

Sjostrom has long torso, ideal body shape for swimmer, just like Phelps.

But she’s far from looking manly.

Both Manuel and Ledecky look more manly than Sarah.

Carlo
Reply to  SchoolingFTW
7 years ago

I wouldn’t say any of them ( ledecky, sjostrom and manuel) look manly but rather they look boyish.

Comerford looks really girlish which makes her speed all the more remarkable and she,s not that tall. Manuel is 5,11 while comerford looks to be around 5,9 or so. Sjostrom is a relative giant at 6,1.

Dee
Reply to  Carlo
7 years ago

Manuel is only 5ft11? I would have said taller. Who is the tallest sprinter? Campbell? I have heard Freya Anderson has had a real growth spurt and is up above 6ft now, which explains perhaps why she is struggling a little. Growth usually brings injuries.

Is anybody taller than Runge? I know a few of the Swedes are around the same height as Sjostrom (Hansson & Johansson) too.

SchoolingFTW
Reply to  Carlo
7 years ago

Manuel is definitively not 5’11” LOL

Domino
Reply to  Dawgpaddle
7 years ago

Ahh, talking about the real important stuff. Thanks.

MichaelTran
7 years ago

The question:
Which is line-up for team USA in Women’s 4x200m this morning???
If they let Comerford do double-double today, they will kill her medal chance in 100m free!!!

Swim-Fan
Reply to  MichaelTran
7 years ago

That’s very possible. She will have to race the final for sure.

Torchbearer
Reply to  MichaelTran
7 years ago

With only 10 entrants (2 to miss final) in the W4x200m I imagine the US could put in their ‘C’ or ‘D’ Team in the heats and get through…

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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