2018 SC Worlds: Day 3 Finals Preview

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)

SEMIFINALS

Tonight in Hangzhou, five semifinal races will be contested. Chief among them is the 50m free, which will include a showdown between Caeleb Dressel and Vladimir Morozov. The Russian Morozov scratched out of the 100 IM, where he was favored to win as the WR holder, but he’s focusing solely on the 50 free. To win that title, though, he’s going to have to get by Dressel, who blasted a 20.43 leading off the 4×50 mixed free relay last night and was 20.62 in prelims. It’s just semis, but Dressel and Morozov should breeze by into finals, along with Aussie Cameron McEvoy and Briton Ben Proud.

Michael Andrew will have just the women’s 200 back final in between his semi swims in the 100 IM and the 50 free as he’ll look to make it into the final in both races. The women’s 100 IM semis, women’s 50 fly semis, and men’s 50 back semis are also set for tonight. Ryan Murphy‘s 22.77 lead off in the 4×50 mixed medley relay this morning was actually faster than anyone went in the prelims, while Kelsi Dahlia will want a quicker time in the 50 fly semis than her 25.49 this morning.

FINALS

Andrew could consider himself lucky to go from a 100 down to a 50, with a 200 final in between. Dressel, meanwhile, has the 50 semis, then gets to rest for the women’s 50 fly semis, and then will be up in the 100 fly final where he’ll do battle with South African and WR holder Chad Le Clos.

In the women’s 100 free, Dutchwomen Femke Heemskerk and Ranomi Kromowidjojo were the only finishers under 52 seconds in semis, while China’s Zhu Menghui, Sweden’s Michelle Coleman, and USA’s Mallory Comerford were all bunched at 52-lows.

Hometown breaststroker Qin Haiyang will try to hold off Kirill Prigoda (Russia) and WR holder Marco Koch (Germany) in the men’s 200 breast, while upstart Lisa Bratton quietly rose to #3 in American history and is the top seed in women’s 200 back.

WJR holder and Chinese 16-year-old Wang Jianjiahe seeks gold in the 800 free, and she’s just a tenth off of Mireia Belmonte’s WR there. Finally, the U.S. will make some swaps after nearly setting the WR this morning in what was not their best lineup as they shoot for gold in the 4×50 mixed medley relay.