2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- June 18-25, 2022 (pool swimming)
- Budapest, Hungary
- Duna Arena
- LCM (50-meter format)
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- Day 8 Prelims Heat Sheets
The final prelims session of the 2022 World Championships is finally upon us. The last morning session will be the shortest one yet, featuring only 3 events. We’ll get started with the women’s 400 IM prelims and then see the heats for both the men’s and women’s 4×100 medley relays.
The top seed in the women’s 400 IM is Japanese Olympic champion Yui Ohashi who had an entry time of 4:32.08. Ohashi swam that time at the Tokyo Olympics to take the gold medal. Ohashi will be one to watch here and clearly has the potential to win, but her 200 IM earlier in the meet didn’t bode well for her efforts here. Ohashi finished 13th in the 200 IM, which she also won at Tokyo 2020, with a 2:12.05.
So in the days between Ohashi’s 200 IM and this incoming 400 IM, she’ll need to have found that missing speed in order to stay in the fight for a medal.
Summer McIntosh is going to be a mighty competitor in this IM event, having already medalled in 2 events. McIntosh won the 200 butterfly earlier this week with a 2:05.20 world junior record and also took silver in the 400 free with a 3:59.39. McIntosh swam a FINA-unofficial time of 4:29.12 in this event back in March 2022, which will likely be enough to win the event if she gets near that time again.
The American duo is going to try to make its mark here in the form of Emma Weyant and Katie Grimes. This is Weyant’s first race of the meet, while Grimes has already picked up a silver medal in the 1500 freestyle.
Legendary swimmer Katinka Hosszu is going to be swimming in front of a home crowd here and comes in with a 4:34.76 entry time for 3rd overall. Hosszu’s season best in the event is a 4:35.95 from May 2022 and last year she placed 5th at the Olympics with a 4:35.98.
The only other Olympic finalist from 2021 that is set to race the 400 IM include Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas who swam a 4:37.75 in 2021 for 6th place. 4th place finisher Mireia Belmonte, 7th place finisher Aimee Willmott, and 8th place finisher Ilaria Cusinato are all absent from the field.
As the women’s 400 IM entrants face off for those 8 spots in the finals, keep an eye out for Canada’s Tessa Cieplucha, Isreal’s Anastasia Gorbenko, Japan’s Ageha Tanigawa, China’s Ge Chutong, and Australia’s Jenna Forrester.
In the medley relay, the USA men will be searching for a repeat title after collecting gold in Tokyo. On the women’s side, it’ll be the Australians hoping to defend their Olympic title from 2021 while the Americans come in as the defending World champions thanks to their win in 2019.
The US men set the world record in this event with a 3:26.78 and the American women lowered the world record to a 3:50.40 back in 2019 when they won the world title. Those records both still stand today and will be on watch during finals.
Check back in as we get closer to the session for a breakdown of the prelims relay lineups.
Where’s the swimswam breakdown??
The men’s relay teams brought their A teams or nearly A teams in the preliminary heats. Japan had to lose their place to Austria.
No relay lineups yet?
Off topic, does anyone know how we can watch full replay in Australia, or any other place?
CBC has a full replay usually if you’re have a VPN to say you’re in Canada.
In Australia, Channel 9 has individual races and a “mini” which is about an hour with most of the races included. To my knowledge you can’t legally see a full replay in Australia
The video CBC uploaded for the day 7 (last night) replay is only 4 minutes long.
Oh yes that’s right. I saw that. Must be a mistake. That’s annoying.
McIntosh is on FIRE. Reminds me of a young Michael Phelps!