2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00* am ET
- *The final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET
- Live Results (Omega)
The fourth preliminary session from the 2018 Short Course World Championships in Hangzhou will kick off with a swim-off in the men’s 50 free, as Poland’s Pawel Juraszek will battle defending champion Jesse Puts of the Netherlands for the 8th and final spot in the championship final. In the semi-finals, the two of them tied for 8th in 21.12, and it speaks to how much faster the field is this year as Puts’ winning time in 2016 was just .02 faster in 21.10.
There will be three individual women’s events in the session, including the 100 breaststroke where Jamaican Alia Atkinson will be seeking a three-peat. She is the world record holder, having gone 1:02.36 on two separate occasions, and is coming off winning the 50 for the first time in her career.
China’s Wang Jianjiahe, who’s coming off a gold medal victory in the 800 freestyle, highlights the 400 free field, and she’ll be joined by 800 minor medalists Simona Quadarella and Leah Smith. Wang set the world record in the event in October in a time of 3:53.97, and Smith is the defending champion.
In the 50 backstroke, Olivia Smoliga comes in with the hot hand after setting the American Record leading off the women’s medley relay in 25.97 and then going even faster on the opening leg of the mixed medley relay (25.85). Also in the field will be world record holder and defending champ Etiene Medeiros of Brazil, whose record stands at 25.67, 2016 silver medalist Katinka Hosszu, and Smoliga’s American teammate Kathleen Baker.
The lone individual men’s event will be the 50 fly, where Chad Le Clos and Caeleb Dressel are expected to head-to-head once again come the final, but Brazilian Nicholas Santos is the newly minted world record holder after going 21.75 in October and is the man to beat. Le Clos, the two-time defending champ, won the 100 fly over Dressel at day 3 finals.
There will also be the men’s 4×50 free relay directly after the swim-off, and then the 4×200 free at the end of the session.
Is MA on the 4×200?
Not really – the prelim line-ups are above
Pebbly swam a decent 200 free at winter nationals and said he wanted to be on relay so put him on it
Amazing that Katinka can be competitive for a medal in the 50 back all the way up to winning a 400 IM.
Must not train USRPT…
Prelims – Official
4×50 free relay lineup : Andrew, Jensen, Decoursey, Conger
4×200 free lineup : Kieren Smith, Conger, Pebley, Harting
those line-ups should be enough to get into finals
4 by 50 free prediction line – up : Dressel , Chadwick , Held & ??? Pieroni / Andrew
My guess…
Prelims: Held, Chadwick, Grevers, Pieroni
Finals: Dressel & Andrew, plus fastest two from the morning.
Have to go with Held and Chadwick for finals (they’ll probably be best two anyway) based on their spits so far.
Dressel has only 100 free in the AM of day 5, so I say he swims the 4×200
Blake
Dressel
Conger
??? Bentz/Grothe/Harting
hard to predict that relay line up right now – but it will be fun to watch
i would say : Pieroni , Conger , Grothe and Bentz / Dressel
If there is doubt and someone is out I want one for Brazil 3 amazing legs but then…
A ton of options for the 4×200. Pieroni is probably the only real lock. Conger, Jensen, Pebley, Murphy, Grothe, Harting, and Bentz all have solid-to-great 4×200 swims under their belt in NCAAs or big international meets. And quite of a those guys have most/all of their events yet to come.
Could throw Held in there also. He split a 1:31.09 as part of winning NCAA relay that broke USOpen record.
A working stream, anybody ?
Dressel
50free
50fly
4×50
4×200
Today ??