2022 Short Course Worlds: Day 3 Finals Preview

2022 FINA Short Course World Championships

• Tuesday, December 13 to Sunday, December 18, 2022
• Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Melbourne, Australia
• SCM (25m)
• Prize Money
• Meet Site
• Meet Schedule
• How To Watch
• Meet Roster Index
• Psych Sheets (Updated)
• Live Results
• Day 3 Prelims Live Recap

Day 3 Finals Heat Sheets

Day three of the 2022 Short Course World Championships is here, bringing us finals of the men’s and women’s 100 free, 200 fly, 100 breast, 4×50 free relay, and men’s 400 free. There will also be the semifinals of the men’s and women’s 50 back and 100 IM. There were no event scratches for this session.

One of the fastest races from prelims was the men’s 50 back where the top three finishers cracked their respective national records. Poland’s Kacper Stokowski got his hand to the wall first (22.78), out-touching second-place finisher Isaac Cooper of Australia by .01. Cooper simultaneously broke the Oceanic record with a 22.79. South Africa’s Pieter Coetze took third in prelims (23.01). and is also within striking distance of a first-place semifinals finish.

We will see defending champion and world record holder Maggie Macneil of Canada race in the women’s 50 back semifinal. MacNeil set the world record at this meet last year and has been on fire throughout this college season. She came within .82 of that time in prelims to place 7th, but there is no telling what speed she has left in the tank. Denmark’s Julie Kepp Jensen hit the wall first with a Danish national record of 25.85. It was an incredibly tight race already in prelims with a three-way tie for 4th place between American Claire Curzan and Swedes Hanna Rosvall and Louise Hansson (26.07).

No one has been able to stop Jordan Crooks in the men’s 100 free so far as he has taken first in prelims and semifinals, each victory completed with national record-setting times. It will be a close race between Crooks, France’s Maxime Grousset, and world record holder Kyle Chalmers (although we can’t count out Romanian sprint star David Popovici who blasted a World Junior record last night.)

This finals session will wrap up with 4×50 freestyle relays where China is the top seed on the women’s side and the Netherlands is ranked first after prelims for the men.

Today’s prelims session seemed to mark a positive shift in momentum for the American men with Trenton Julian as the top seed in the 200 fly and Kieran Smith top seed in the 400 free, alongside four other semifinalists. American women are looking especially strong tonight, holding the top two spots in the women’s 200 fly final (Dakota Luther and Hali Flickinger.) After day two, Australia, the United States, and Italy are leading the medal table, but there is still plenty of room for that order to change once the finals session starts at 7:30 pm local time in Melbourne / 3:30 am U.S. Eastern Time.