2017 FINA World Championships: Day 8 Finals Live Recap

2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Sadly enough, there’s just one session left of the 2017 World Championships. We’ve seen a huge number of records and big-time swims, and the meet will finish up with three 50’s, the 400 IM, the men’s 1500 free, and the medley relays. Superstars of the meet Caeleb Dressel and Sarah Sjöström will be in action once more, too.

WOMEN’S 50 BREAST – FINAL

  1. Lilly King, USA, 29.40
  2. Yulia Efimova, Russia, 29.57
  3. Katie Meili, USA, 29.99

This was a fast final, and it took a sub-30 second swim to make the podium. All three medalists hit lifetime bests, with Lilly King rocketing to a world record of 29.40 to win. Yulia Efimova was right there with her for most of the race, but King was just ahead at the finish to lock it up.

Katie Meili picked up another medal, this time a bronze with a 29.99– she’s now the fourth American women to break 30 seconds in this event, joining King, Jessica Hardy, and Breeja Larson. Meanwhile, Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte was 4th overall, going 30.20 after getting to a great start. With the way she’s been swimming, she looks to be rapidly returning to form, and she could be very dangerous as soon as next year.

MEN’S 400 IM – FINAL

  • World Record: Michael Phelps, 4:03.84, 2008
  • Championship Record: Michael Phelps, 4:06.22, 2007
  • Junior World Record: Sean Grieshop, 4:14.00, 2016
  1. Chase Kalisz, USA 4:05.90
  2. David Verraszto, Hungary, 4:08.38
  3. Daiya Seto, Japan, 4:09.14

Chase Kalisz had the lead going into the breaststroke, and there was no way anybody would get past him coming home. Taking down Michael Phelps’ 2007 championship record, Kalisz brings the gold back to the US in this event after they’ve had a 400IM WC gold medal drought that’s lasted since Ryan Lochte won gold in Shanghai in 2011.

Kalisz posted a time of 4:05.90, a lifetime best, and that makes him the #3 performer all-time. Only Phelps and Lochte have been faster, ever.

To the crowd’s raucous delight, Hungarian David Verraszto popped a 4:08.38 for silver, with Japan’s Daiya Seto in for bronze at 4:09.14. GBR’s Max Litchfield was also under 4:10, going 4:09.62 for fourth.

WOMEN’S 50 FREE – FINAL

  • World Record: Sarah Sjöström, 23.67, 2017
  • Championship Record: Sarah Sjöström, 23.67, 2017
  • Junior World Record: Rikako Ikee, 24.48, 2017
  1. Sarah Sjöström, Sweden, 23.69
  2. Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Netherlands, 23.85
  3. Simone Manuel, USA, 23.97

Sarah Sjöström got down to business in the 50 free final, swimming nearly the exact same time as she did when she broke the WR in semifinals. Her time of 23.69 earned her her third individual gold of the meet.

The Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo broke through 24.0 for the first time ever, going 23.85 to take the silver. That’s a huge swim for the Dutchwoman, setting a new Dutch record. Also setting a record was Simone Manuel, who went 23.97 to become the first American woman under 24 seconds. This was the first time in WC history that all medallists broke 24 seconds.

Meanwhile, Pernille Blume had a great swim in 4th, going 24.00 to set a new Danish record.

MEN’S 50 BACK – FINAL

  • World Record: Liam Tancock, 24.04, 2009
  • Championship Record: Liam Tancock, 24.04, 2009
  • Junior World Record: Kliment Kolesnikov, 24.94, 2016
  1. Camille Lacourt, France, 24.35
  2. Junya Koga, Japan, 24.51
  3. Matt Grevers, USA, 24.56

Camille Lacourt swam a great race to take gold in his final race at this level– he announced this spring that he’d be retiring post-Worlds. With his 24.35, he has now won gold at the last three World Champs, dating back to 2013 Worlds in Barcelona.

Japan’s Junya Koga raced to 2nd in 24.51, just ahead of Matt Grevers of the USA (24.56), who picks up a bronze in what has been a strong comeback year after he missed qualification for the Rio Olympics. All three medallists are over 30 years of age.

WOMEN’S 400 IM – FINAL

  • World Record: Katinka Hosszu, 4:26.36, 2016
  • Championship Record: Katinka Hosszu, 4:30.31, 2015
  • Junior World Record: Rosie Rudin, 4:39.01, 2015
  1. Katinka Hosszu, Hungary, 4:29.33
  2. Mireia Belmonte, Spain, 4:32.17
  3. Sydney Pickrem, Canada, 4:32.88

Katinka Hosszu won another gold tonight, posting a 4:29.33 for the 400 IM win. She adds that to her gold from the 200 IM final, and becomes the first woman to win a WC gold in her home country.

Mireia Belmonte of Spain picked up the silver, adding to her medal haul this week, with Canada’s Sydney Pickrem touching right behind the Spaniard for bronze, coming back strong after a rough 200 IM. Yui Ohashi did not have the 400 IM that we expected after her stellar 200 IM, her 4:34.50 in for 4th place.

MEN’S 1500 FREE — FINAL

  • World Record: Sun Yang, 14:31.02, 2012
  • Championship Record: Sun Yang, 14:34.14, 2011
  • Junior World Record: Mack Horton, 14:51.55, 2014
  1. Gregorio Paltrinieri, Italy, 14:35.85
  2. Mykhailo Romanchuk, Ukraine, 14:37.14
  3. Mack Horton, Australia, 14:47.70

The three medallists were leading the rest of the field the whole race through, and the WR looked to be in jeopardy until the last 100. Gregorio Paltrinieri stuck it out for the gold, hitting a time of 14:35.85 to win.

Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk had an incredible race, first setting the Ukrainian record with a 14:44.11 in prelims yesterday. He then upended that time completely, dropped almost seven more seconds to finish out at 14:37.14, becoming the 4th-best performer ever in this event. His teammate Sergii Frolov swam very well, too, going 14:55.10 for 6th.

Mack Horton took to the bronze, going 14:47.70, well ahead of 4th place Gabriele Detti (14:52.07). Both swimmers were well off of their bests, which are 14:39 for Horton and 14:40 for Detti.

WOMEN’S 400 MEDLEY RELAY — FINAL

  • World Record: USA, 3:52.05, 2012
  • Championship Record: China, 3:52.19, 2009
  • Junior World Record: Russia, 4:01.05, 2015
  1. United States (Baker – King – Worrell -Manuel), 3:51.55
  2. Russia (Fesikova, Efimova, Chimrova, Popova), 3:53.38
  3. Australia (Seebohm, McKeown, McKeon, Campbell) 3:54.29

The Americans charged hard with four great legs as they posted a new world record time of 3:51.55. Kathleen Baker got things started with a 58.54, followed by a 1:04.48 from Lilly King, a 56.30 from Kelsi Worrell, and a 52.23 anchor leg from Simone Manuel, which is her fourth 52-low anchor in a relay final this week.

Yulia Efimova actually out-split King on the breast leg, going 1:04.03 which helped Russia to a European record and silver medal at 3:53.38. Australia picked up bronze, getting a 58.53 lead-off from Emily Seebohm and a strong 52.69 anchor from Bronte Campbell.

Kylie Masse had the fastest back leg in 58.31 as the Canadians placed fourth, while Sarah Sjöström swam a mind-boggling 55.03 fly leg though Sweden touched 5th.

MEN’S 400 MEDLEY RELAY — FINAL

  • World Record: USA, 3:27.28, 2009
  • Championship Record: USA, 3:27.28, 2009
  • Junior World Record: Russia, 3:36.44, 2015
  1. United States (Grevers, Cordes, Dressel, Adrian), 3:27.91
  2. GBR (Walker-Hebborn, Peaty, Guy, Scott), 3:28.95
  3. Russia (Tarasevich, Prigoda, Popkov, Morozov), 3:29.78

Team USA was all golden in this race, going 3:27.91 to scare the WR and sail to the top of the podium once more. Matt Grevers (52.26), Kevin Cordes (58.89), Caeleb Dressel (49.76), and Nathan Adrian (47.00) got things done, with Grevers’ and Dressel’s splits really standing out. In addition to being field-best for both men, Grevers came very close to his lifetime best of 52.08, proving how on-form he really is. Dressel, of course, went Remel on the field and helped the U.S. get ahead despite Adam Peaty going 56.91 on the breast leg to catch Cordes.

Adrian stuck it out at the end, but there were a couple very strong anchor legs. Vladimir Morozov was 46.69 to go the fastest split this week, helping Russia to bronze, though Duncan Scott was 47.04 to hold him off to give GBR silver. Meanwhile, Hungary’s Dominik Kozma went absolutely berserk for a 46.72 anchor. Hungary was back in 7th, but their back-half of Kozma and Kristof Milak on fly (50.97) ensures that the nation will have continued success in the coming years.

In This Story

715
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

715 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Nswim
6 years ago

To all those wondering if that was in-fact Franklin in the stands, Speedo posted pictures of a new shoot this morning. She must’ve flown out to Hungary to meet them because she’s at the shoot.

Emanuele
6 years ago
AWSI DOOGER
6 years ago

I expected more from the Canadians especially Oleksiak. That’s one of the things I’ll take away from this. Logically she should have had more room to move forward than Simone after tying for the gold medal but it went sharply the other way. Granted, it could still happen. Even though Penny was down this year compared to last year I still expected a surge during this event.

Todd Harris really improved as the week went on. He’s much better than Dan Hicks at one aspect — picking out swimmers in outside lanes from other countries who have moved into contention after not being expected to factor. Overall the swimming commentary is so much better than track and field on… Read more »

Baker-King-Vollmer-Manuel
Reply to  AWSI DOOGER
6 years ago

Todd Harris ….. meh!

I prefer the Aussie announcer at the 2014 Pan Pacs and I’m not talking about Nicole Livingstone either.

beachmouse
Reply to  AWSI DOOGER
6 years ago

Big time drop followed by a bit of a plateau is pretty common for girls Oleksiak’s age. There’s a time frame following the last growth spurt where a fit woman has a really awesome strength-weight ratio, and then the body changes and some things are not quite as easy as they had been.

Danjohnrob
6 years ago

If you just want World Records or American Records, SwimSwam lists those under the “More” link above, but they are not yet updated to reflect this meet. Also the USA Swimming website lists records, if that’s what you’re looking for.

Danjohnrob
6 years ago

Wikipedia has a World Record Progression for each event, but I doubt it’s updated to reflect this meet yet.

Dru
6 years ago

Going be interesting to see how close the US men can get to that ’08 4 x100 free world record.. got 3 pieces for it: dressel (47.17 flat start), Adrian (47 flat rolling) and haas (47.24 rolling)

Held was 47.73 in rio rolling, pieroni was 48.03 rolling here

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Dru
6 years ago

Dressel/Adrian/Haas can definitely match Phelps/W-G/Jones’s splits…but the last split on that WR was 46.0.

I mean, Dressel’s good, but he ain’t that good…yet.

Swammer81
6 years ago

“Dressel went Remel on the field…” LMAO SwimSwam >_<

bobo gigi
6 years ago

Quick comments.
Absolutely zero surprise about the winners of that final day of competition. And another day with crazy fast times.

Women’s 50 breast. Cold War III 3rd episode. And King was again the Queen. New world record! Looks like it was more friendly after the race between King and Efimova. Reconciliation in the making? Meili doesn’t make much noise behind the 2 leaders of breaststroke but she had a great meet too. 4 golds for Lilly King with each time a new world record! 50 breast/100 breast/mixed 4X100 free relay/mixed 4X100 medley relay. And it’s almost all about Peaty in the media when we talk about breaststroke…. KIng deserves to be recognized too.

Men’s 400 IM. Kalisz/Verraszto/Seto as… Read more »

Carlo
Reply to  bobo gigi
6 years ago

Nooooo. Please no reconciliation between effimova and king.
We need a cold war in sports to make things interesting even if the US beats russia every time on the medals table. I think Russia was more of a rival in sports during the Soviet times as the battles for supremacy on the medals table, not so much now.

But the look of the crying russian gymnastics girls in rio as the American girls crushed them must have been ooh laah laaah to the murican viewers.

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

Read More »