Day 6, same meet start times. Check out our Day 5 preview here for details.
We will again be doing a live preview show 30 minutes before the prelims start, and during the finals session (Thursday night in Shanghai, Friday morning in the United States), we will livecast the full finals session on Ustream. Both can be listened to in the upper right-hand corner of this screen.
The Americans are taking some real initiative, and that ought continue on day 6. The USA would be shocked to not win 3 gold medals in the five finals today. This is going to be a busy day, with 6 races in the morning session and 9 in the final.
Five things to watch on day 6:
1. Rebecca Soni in the women’s 200 breaststroke – Rebecca Soni should be swimming alone in this 200 breaststroke. She was more than two-and-a-half seconds faster than anybody else in the semifinal, and there’s not even a hint of indication that she’s in line for a letdown in the final. We saw World Record number one in the men’s 200 IM yesterday, can Soni give us World Record number two in this 200 breaststroke? The mark currently sits at 2:20.12, which is about nine-tenths ahead of where Soni was in the semifinals. For what it’s worth, in the 100 Soni put up her best time in the semifinal. She has a bit of a deamon in her closet in this 200 breaststroke from the Rome World Championships in 2009. There, she took the race out too hard and fell back to 4th in the final. In semifinals though, she was two seconds better than anyone else in the first 100, and it didn’t seem to affect her at all.
2. Men’s 800 Free Relay – The Americans are a heavy, heavy favorite in this race, and with Lochte and Phelps going 1-2 in the individual 200, I don’t see how that’s going to change. What I want to see from the Americans is if they can push this race under 7 minutes. But there’s two specific swims that I’m really curious to see on this relay. The first is Conor Dwyer, who will be a monumental piece of the American team after Phelps retires following London. This will be his first major international championship swim. The other is Australia’s James Magnussen. The 100 free champion describes himself as a 100/200 swimmer not a 50/100 swimmer, and I hope that his performance in the 100 encourages Australia to at least give him a prelims swim in this relay.
3. Men’s 50 freestyle prelims/semis – With Magnussen out, this 50 freestyle is a much more wide open race for gold. Cesar Cielo looked really strong on the opening half of the 100, as did Nathan Adrian, before both struggled a touch on their back halves to finish out of the medals.Those two have to be favorites for medals, along with a juiced-up Fred Bousquet of France and the veteran Stefan Nystrand, the 29-year old Swedish veteran who’s been resurgent this year. Matt Targett, who was a silver medalist in the 50 fly, will also make an appearance in this 50 fly, and anyone who does that well in a 50 fly has a good chance in a 50 free.
4. Men’s 200 backstroke – Ryan Lochte put up a top seeded time in the semi-finals of the 200 backstroke, but much like we saw in the earlier rounds of the 200 free and 200 IM, he’s hardly put out any effort yet. Lochte has been masterfully able to conserve energy in early rounds and still get great lane placement, which is a big product of his high-level training volumes. Based on what we know Tyler Clary is capable of, we haven’t seen much from him either (that 200 fly wasn’t an indicator of where he’s going to be at in this race). Ryosuke Irie is silky-smooth and highly efficient, though at only 5’10” he has to be. It’s going to take a 1:53 to win this race, and I think all three could get there.
5. Women’s 100 free final – Britain’s Fran Halsall went out and swam a very-fast 53.48 in the semifinals, but made it clear in her post-race interviews that hers was a conscientious statement-making swim. I think that Femke Heemskerk of the Netherlands has a lot better than a 53.48 in her though, so Halsall might have to find a whole new gear that she didn’t know about to win this race. Everyone else looks to be in contention for a bronze medal, including Americans Dana Vollmer and Natalie Coughlin, and Heemskerk’s teammate Ranomi Kromowidjojo.
