2024 Mare Nostrum – Monaco: Day 2 Prelims Recap

2024 MARE NOSTRUM TOUR – MONACO

• June 1-2, 2024
• Prince Albert II Pool at the Stadium Louis II
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet central
• Results
• Day 1 Finals Recap
• Live stream ($)

Day two of the 2024 Mare Nostrum – Monaco competition, the final stop of the tour, will bring rapid-fire rounds of the sprint skins to kick off tonight’s session.

Before that, however, swimmers contested a packed schedule of heats to follow up a record-breaking day one.

The men’s 200m free carries a plethora of talent, but a trio of Koreans nabbed the top 3 spots in this morning’s prelims.

Jaehoon Yang landed lane 4 with an AM time of 1:47.51 followed by yesterday’s 100m freestyle champion and reigning World Championships 200m free gold medalist Hwang Sunwoo.

Hwang clocked a time of 1:48.42 while teammate Hojoon Lee was immediately behind in 1:48.48.

Estonia’s Kregor Zirk earned 4th place in 1:48.73 and the 200m fly gold medalist here, Kristof Milak of Hungary, is also in the mix. 24-year-old Milak notched the 5th seed in 1:49.38.

Milak earlier contested the 100m fly where he earned the pole position in a result of 52.11. At the 2nd stop in Barcelona, Milak powered his way to a Mare Nostrum Record of 50.95, tying the standard he put on the books in 2021.

Reigning Asian Games champion Katsuhiro Matsumoto secured the 2nd seed in 52.19 and Swiss national record holder Noe Ponti tied Singaporean Quah Zheng Wen for 3rfd in 52.31.

Japanese teammates Genki Terakado (52.55) and Tomoru Honda (52.77) also made the final while South African veteran Chad Le Clos settled for 12th in 53.83.

The women’s 100m free is also rife with world-class talent, including Marie Wattel of France and Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong.

This duo scored the top 2 seeds, with Wattel touching in 54.71 and Haughey only .06 behind in 54.77. Japan’s Nagisa Ikemoto (54.91) and Great Britain’s Freya Anderson (55.24) will also be in the hunt for medals in tonight’s main event.

In Barcelona, Haughey fired off a big-time result of 52.55 for the gold. That was within striking distance of her season-best and national record-setting performance of 52.05 turned in last October in Berlin.

The women’s 100m back is a tightly packed field from this morning’s heats, led by Japan’s Rio Shirai.

Shirai nabbed the top spot in 1:01.00 followed closely by Canadian Olympic qualifier Ingrid Wilm. Wilm snagged the 2nd seed in 1:01.08 with Israeli Anastasia Gorbenko rounding out the top 3 in 1:02.02.

Gorbenko was back in the pool at the end of the session to race the 200m IM, where she topped the field in 2:15.29.

20-year-old Gorbenko has been on an absolute tear across this Tour, establishing new national records in the 200m back, 200m IM and 400m IM thus far.

Olympic silver medalist Arno Kamminga will be the man to beat in tonight’s 100m breast final. The Dutchman turned in a time of 59.77 as the sole sub-minute racer of the morning.

Countryman Caspar Corbeau notched 1:00.45 as the 2nd seed while Japan’s gold medalist from Barcelona, Yu Hanguruma, lurks as the 4th seed in 1:01.26.

Of note, Italy’s versatile Thomas Ceccon tried this 1breast on for size. The world record holder in the 100m back registered 1:02.89 as the 11th place swimmer.

Additional Top Seeds

• Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita beat the men’s 400m IM field this morning by nearly 9 seconds. He turned in a time of 4:23.49 to set himself up for success for tonight’s final.
• Danish national record holder Helena Rosendahl-Bach cleared the women’s 200m fly field, posting a morning outing of 2:10.51. Her fastest ever stands at the 2:06.43 she produced just this past April at the Swim Open Stockholm.
• Just one swimmer delved under the 2:00 barrier in the 200m back, with Hidekazu Takehara of Japan producing 1:59.31.
• Lithuanian Kotryna Teterevkova scored the top spot in the women’s 200m breast, posting 2:29.38. Her swiftest of the season remains at the 2:24.56 which garnered her silver at April’s Pro Swim in San Antonio.