2017 Mare Nostrom Monaco – Sjostrom Scorches 56.20 100 Fly

2017 MARE NOSTRUM TOUR – MONACO

• June 10-11, 2017
• Monaco
• LCM
• Psych sheets
• Prelims 9am/Finals 5pm (GMT +2)
• Meet central
• Meet Preview
• Day 1 Prelims Recap
• Results

After a preview of battles to come from this morning’s heats, several races tonight lived up to expectations with such big names as Sarah Sjostrom, Katinka Hosszu, Cameron McEvoy and Yasuhiro Koseki in the house. The morning races were on the quiet side times-wise, save a couple of individual standout swims such as Sjostrom’s sub-58 100m fly and Andrei Nikolavev‘s 50m breaststroke meet record, but that changed with money on the line.

Japan’s Koseki settled for the 2nd seed in the men’s 200m breaststroke after this morning’s heat, but made his move in tonight’s final to overcome Russia’s Kirill Prigoda. Splitting 1:02.96/1:06.53, Koseki scored a winning time of 2:09.49 to clock the only sub-2:10 outing of the field. Prigoda knocked over 3 seconds off of his morning swim to snatch up 2nd place tonight in 2:10.19.

Both men have been significantly faster this season, with their nations’ World Championships Trials having already taken place. Koseki holds the number 2 time in the world rankings with the 2:07.18 clocked at the Japan Swim, while Prigoda occupies the 6th slot in the world rankings with his 2:08.11 from April’s Russian Nationals.

2016-2017 LCM MEN 200 BREAST

IppeiJPN
WATANABE

01/29
2.06.67*WR

2	Anton CHUPKOV	RUS	2.06.96	07/28
3	Yasuhiro KOSEKI	JPN	2.07.18	04/16
4	Kevin CORDES	USA	2.07.41	06/18
5	Ross MURDOCH	GBR	2.07.72	07/27
6	Erik PERSSON	SWE	2.07.85	04/11

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The women’s 100m breaststroke saw 2016 Olympic silver medalist Yulia Efimova, who now represents her own team, take the event in a swift 1:06.45. Although off her #2 time in the world of 1:05.90 from Russian Nationals, her outing was enough to put a comfortable spread among the top 4 competitors who were all separated by only .6 of a second this morning.

Sweden’s Jennie Johansson wrangled in silver in 1:08.05, while Australia’s Taylor McKeown touched in 1:08.29 for bronze. Both women already appear within the world rankings in the 6th and 18th slots, having notched times of 1:06.30 and 1:07.23 at the Swedish Open and Australian National Championships, respectively.

2016-2017 LCM WOMEN 100 BREAST

LillyUSA
KING

07/25
1.04.13*WR

2	Yuliya EFIMOVA	RUS	1.04.36	07/24
3	Katie MEILI	USA	1.05.03	07/25
4	Ruta MEILUTYTE	LTU	1.05.06	07/24
5	Hiroko MAKINO	JPN	1.06.05	01/14

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Australia earned its first gold medal of the meet in the form of comeback kid James Magnussen‘s victory in the 100m freestyle. Tonight followed suit with this morning in terms of time, with no competitors dipping below the 49-second territory. Nevertheless, Maggie’s winning 49.11 (23.97/25.14) is a confidence booster in his first race since the 2016 Olympic Games. Russia’s Nikita Lobinstev touched in 49.51 for silver, followed by Cameron McEvoy, the fastest 100m freestyler ever in a textile suit, who finished in 49.53.

200m backstroke Olympic silver medalist Mitch Larkin also collected gold for the Aussies, touching in 54.08 in the 100m distance today. He’s been sub-54 already this season (53.54) and will look to take on American Ryan Murphy, China’s Jiayu Xu and Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, among others, in Budapest.

Swedish sizzlers Sarah Sjostrom and Michelle Coleman collected two individual event wins in tonight’s finals for their nation. Sjostrom smacked down the women’s 100m butterfly field, cranking out a monster 56.20 for the new #1 time in the world. That outing overtakes her own previous world-leading time of 56.26 from April’s Swedish Open. Sjostrom won gold in Rio in a new world record mark of 55.48, but her 56.20 from today would have been enough for silver, for perspective. Her time also registers as a new Mare Nostrom meet record and is positioned as the 13th fastest performance of all-time.

For Coleman, the freestyle specialist continued to make her mark in the women’s 200m event, taking the win in 1:57.38.  She edged out a charging Madi Wilson from Australia, who hit the timepad just .59 later in 1:57.97. With Sjostrom opting out of the 200m freestyle individually as of late, Coleman has stepped up big time, already holding the 2nd fastest performance in the world this season in 1:55.64.

Hosszu took the bronze in 1:58.53, knowing her 400m IM specialty event timed final also falls later in this session. Of note, Cate Campbell of Australia won the 200m freestyle B-Final in 2:00.54. Hosszu also claimed silver in the 200m backstroke (2:09.37), with Aussie Emily Seebohm taking the gold in 2:08.98.

2016-2017 LCM WOMEN 200 FREE

KatieUSA
LEDECKY

07/25
1.54.69

2	Federica PELLEGRINI	ITA	1.54.73	07/26
3	Emma McKEON	AUS	1.54.99	07/25
4	Veronika POPOVA	RUS	1.55.08	07/25
5	Sarah SJOSTROM	SWE	1.55.51	08/08

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The Iron Lady was indeed victorious in her world record event of the 400m IM, notching a swift 4:34.12 in a field of just 6 women. That is the Hungarian’s fastest time of the season and Hosszu now ties Britain’s Hannah Miley as the #2 fastest time in the world. For Hosszu, she’s been incredibly consistent at this time of year in the 400m IM. In Monaco in 2015, she was 4:34.16, with her time last year clocked at 4:34.14.

2016-2017 LCM WOMEN 400 IM

KatinkaHUN
HOSSZU

07/30
4.29.33

2	yui OHHASHI	JPN	4.31.42	04/14
3	Mireia BELMONTE	ESP	4.32.17	07/30
4	Sydney PICKREM	CAN	4.32.88	07/30
5	Leah SMITH	USA	4.33.86	06/29

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The Aussies also had a medal in the form of 400m freestyle Olympic gold medalist Mack Horton finishing in the runner-up slot in the same race tonight in Monaco. The Melbourne Vicentre athlete notched a time of 3:50.13, but it was Malaysia’s Welson Sim who stood atop the podium in the golden time of 3:49.48. That effort establishes a new Malaysian national record, overtaking Sim’s own previous mark of 3:50.33 from last year’s Singapore Age Group Championships.

2016-2017 LCM WOMEN 400 IM

KatinkaHUN
HOSSZU

07/30
4.29.33

2	yui OHHASHI	JPN	4.31.42	04/14
3	Mireia BELMONTE	ESP	4.32.17	07/30
4	Sydney PICKREM	CAN	4.32.88	07/30
5	Leah SMITH	USA	4.33.86	06/29

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Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh submitted a solid time in the 200m butterfly tonight, clocking the only effort under the 2-minute threshold. 1:57.52 is what Cseh threw down, although we noted earlier how the field didn’t include British emerging 200m butterflyer James Guy. Guy was held back in Britain, along with teammates Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, Calum Jervis and Christopher Walker-Hebborn, who were all booted from an overbooked flight.

31-year-old Cseh also won the men’s 200m IM event tonight in a time of 2:02.07. Of note, the event only contained a field of 15, so the B-Final wasn’t fielded with 8 swimmers.

On the 50m sprinting side, we got to see primetime match-ups within round 1 of the skins competition of the freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and fly bracket racing this morning, with the rounds to select the top 16 taking place. Tonight we saw the fields narrowed down to 8 and finally 4, who will compete for the head-to-head round tomorrow. Below are the top 4 in each of the 50m events:

Women’s 50 Breast Top 4:

1. Yulia Efimova (RUS) 30.82
2. Satomi Suzuki (JPN) 31.25
3. Jenna Laukkanen (FIN) 31.34
4. Jennie Johansson (SWE) 31.36

Men’s 50 Breast Top 4:

1. Felipe Lima (BRA) 27.05 MEET RECORD
2. Yasuhiro Koseki (JPN) 27.50
3. Cameron van der Burgh (RSA) 27.54
4. Kirill Prigoda (RUS) 27.64

Women’s 50 Fly Top 4:

1. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) 25.70
2. Rikako Ikee (JPN) 25.83
3. Kimberly Buys (BEL) 26.76
4. Brittany Elmslie (AUS) 27.14

Men’s 50 Fly Top 4:

1. Andrii Khloptsov (UKR) 23.87
2. Adam Barrett (GBR) 23.97
3. Yahor Dodaleu (BLR) 23.99
4. Rika Poytakivi (FIN) 24.02

Women’s 50 Back Top 4:

1. Emily Seebohm (AUS) 27.92
2. Aliaksandra Herasimenia (BLR) 27.97
3. Anastasia Fesikera (RUS) 28.01
4. Holly Barratt (AUS) 28.02

Men’s 50 Back Top 4:

1. Nikita Tsmyh (BLR) 25.46
2. Mitch Larkin (AUS) 25.55
3. Viktor Staselovich (BLR) 25.90
4. Benjamin Stasiulis (FRA) 26.26

Women’s 50 Free Top 4:

1. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) 24.35
2. Bronte Campbell (AUS) 24.76
3. Cate Campbell (AUS) 24.82
4. Brittany Elmslie (AUS) 24.82

Men’s 50 Free Top 4:

1. Bruno Fratus (BRA) 22.06
2. Benjamin Proud (GBR) 22.12
3. Ari Pekka Liukkonen (FIN) 22.25
4. James Magnussen (AUS) 22.28