ARENA PRO SWIM SERIES AT ORLANDO: DAY TWO PRELIMS LIVE RECAP
- Thursday, February 12 – Saturday, February 14
- YMCA Aquatic Center, Orlando FL
- Prelims 9AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Prelims Timeline
- Psych Sheets
- Prelims Heat Sheets
- Distance Session Heat Sheets
- Live stream
- Live results
WOMENS 200m IM
Leading the way in the women’s 200m IM heats was Caitlin Leverenz from Cal Aquatics posting a 2:15.52 to finish just ahead of second seed Hannah Miley. Miley was a 2:15.77. Meghan Small wasn’t far behind in 2:15.87 with Katie Hoff grabbing the fourth spot heading into finals in 2:16.53.
Tonight’s final should be fairly tight as Leverenz rocked the second fastest first 100 of the top eight (second to Meghan Small) and Miley swam a very swift back-half. Arguably, Leverenz back-half is stronger than her front half which should make a very strong strategic match-up between the two. Throw Small and Hoff into the mix and there could be the potential for multiple position changes throughout the race.
Results are unofficial
MENS 200m IM
After questions were raised as to whether or not Ryan Lochte would swim today, Lochte proved that he was definitely present as he topped the heats with a 2:03.06 giving him the middle lane for tonight’s final. His closest competitor this morning was recent breaststroke breakout star Cody Miller who dropped a 2:03.76 beating everyone in the top eight by over two full seconds on the breaststroke leg.
Duncan Scott from Great Britain snuck in for the third seed with a 2:04.63 just slightly displacing Conor Dwyer who was a 2:04.75 to also get a spot in the final. Kyle Whitaker, Mark Blazevski, Marcin Cieslak, and Canadian Alec Page round out the top eight for tonight’s ‘A’ final.
Michael Weiss and Kosuke Kitajima will be swimming in the ‘B’ final of the event.
Results are unofficial
WOMEN 200m Back
After tying for the 100m backstroke win last night, Dominique Bouchard demonstrated that she’s on top of her game here in Orlando with a 2:12.05 to take the top spot after the morning heats. It’s looking as though it could be a Canadian showdown between Bouchard and Hilary Caldwell. Caldwell was the second fastest this morning with a 2:14.30.
Another Commonwealth swimmer could challenge the two with the likes of Charlotte Evans. Evans, from Great Britain, was a 2:16.40 this morning, however, her seed time is well behind that of the two leaders.
Courtney Harnish will also be present in the final after swimming the fourth fastest time this morning. Meghan Small added a second final for tonight with a fifth seed.
MEN 200m Back
Grigory Tarasevich led a very strong field of world-class backstrokers this morning with a 2:01.18. He was almost a second ahead of Matt Grevers from Tuscon Ford who is the defending Olympic Champion in the 100m backstroke. Grevers was a 2:02.09.
The final will also feature the defending 200m backstroke Olympic Champion Tyler Clary who snuck in for the sixth seed with a time of 2:02.94.
The third seed went to Arkady Vyatchanin. Luke Greenbank and Omar Pinzon were behind him with Bobby Hurley and Michael Taylor taking the seventh and eighth seeds for tonight’s final respectively.
Last night Vyatchanin got the better of both Grevers and Tarasevich in the 100m backstroke final, and could possibly have a slight edge over them in the longer race.
WOMEN 100m Free
For the second event on the women’s side a Canadian took the top seed as Victoria Poon touched in at 56.07 for the fastest time this morning. She’ll be right beside Ariane Vanderpool-Wallace tonight from SwimMAC Carolina who should put up a great fight. The 24-year-old was a 56.18 this morning and boasts the fastest seed time of the field with a 54.37.
Lauren Quigley of Great Britain was third overall this morning not far behind the two with a time of 56.29. Amanda Weir grabbed the fourth spot in 56.60 ahead of another SwimMAC Carolina swimmer, Katie Meili. Meili rocked a 56,72 to grab a spot in finals.
MEN 100m Free
In the men’s 100m freestyle final some of the top college students in recent years, who are now all done with their collegiate careers, are set to face off. Geoff Cheah was the fastest out of everyone this morning with a 50.37. Right behind him was Joao De Lucca in 50.45 and Marcelo Chierighini in 50.51. The three were all very prominent in college, which should make a great matchup tonight.
Throw in Michael Wynalda into the picture along with Brazilian sprint star Bruno Fratus and the race tonight should be very close. Junya Koga, Karl Krug, and Miguel Ortiz are the remaining finalists in the event.
Tonight, it truly is anybody’s race. The top eight qualifiers were all within half-a-second of each other.
Well I know swimmers like Hozzu and Seto might take it seriously, since they stand to gain. Others could be recruited easily if it became a professional money event with a good purse. It would become another specialty that not everybody could do well, obviously. But yeah, it would have to have everything from sprint to distance and include all strokes including IM; the point would be to make the events as diverse as possible as the decathlon in track is meant to crown the best “all around” athlete. Right now the 400 IM captures that demographic but with swimmers like Hozzu competing well in everything from a 50 breast to a 1500 that would capture a much larger range… Read more »
Hosszu would love that 😀
Yup. Belmonte-Garcia would give her a run for her money, though.
I think all SwimSwam posters should start it off & become ( poor man’s) swim decathloners then they could be experts in every event . Go down to the pool & roll out every event & the total will be 4,700m .
Google or Apple or one of those outfits has decided we sit too much & will be turning off our internet & gadgets unless we get up x kilojoules exercise. The time is coming folks – get on their good side . Surely they will be impressed by a swim decathlon & let us back on the net .
Great idea. For starters, when I have time I will go back and post the total from all my best times LCM/SCM, even though that’s not an actual decathlon, I’m sure almost all posters on here will still be able to beat it even over just 1-2 days, so it should provide a little motivation.
I love the idea. We already have an unstructured version of it…..the FINA World Cup series. All they would need to do to structure it, is define the Decathlon events, and declare a $100,000 prize for the swimmer with the most decathlon points. The women’s event would be great to watch. Katinka, Bellmonte, Ledecky, Sjostrom. On the men’s side…Hagino, Seto, Chad, Clary,Conger,Kalisz, Lochte. It would be huge, and maybe it would re-invigorate the competition. None of these guys would prejudice their chances of individual event success and do this at a big championship, so it could be trialled at the final World Cup event this year. Who knows, Phelps might even have a pop at it!
The whole thing… Read more »
The equivalent for example of Lochte / Phelps / Hagino / Seto would be to start off a mid – minor meet in 15.45 then a back in 54.5 then a 200 breast in 2.16 & then a400 im in 4.16 in one session .
Over 2 nights straight finals Seto did. 200free 1.48.5 , 400 im 4.13 ( he was not happy with that time) , 200fly 1.55 , 200im 1.58.5 & a round off 15.42 .
There is no equivalent performance ever in the drug fuelled track . Imagine one person at worlds doing in one session the prelims of 5000 mtrs , 400 hurdles , 800 mtrs & then the steeplechase. With approximate times Katinka would have… Read more »
Gina, interesting points. I love your idea of an aquatic decathlon among elites! Or if that’s too much for some, then even some version of pentathlon or heptathlon! They should introduce it and then work that into the Grand Prix points or whatever they call it now. Pentathlons are occasionally done at U.S. Masters Meets and a lot of fun. (though even more fun after they’re over ;-))
I think this confirms what you’re saying: when watching the track and field decathlon/heptathlons, the last event is usually the 1500m/800m run, and a majority of the runners are sucking fumes and wildly losing form by the last lap, even worse than swimmers the end of a 200 fly or 200… Read more »
How would the events be chosen for the Decathlon? A sprint then middle then distance for all four strokes? Curious concept. But would it be taken seriously by the athletes?
For those who are interested in the international meet in Amiens, second stop of the Golden Tour with big names like Marco Koch, Katinka Hosszu, Inge Dekker, Feemke Heemskerk, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, David Verraszto, Coralie Balmy, Charlotte Bonnet, Mélanie Hénique, Anna Santamans, Yannick Agnel, Frédérick Bousquet, Fabien Gilot, Camille Lacourt, Florent Manaudou, Mehdy Metella, Giacomo Perez Dortona or Jérémy Stravius, I give you some results and some links.
Day 1 results
Men’s 800 free. 1. Damien Joly in 7.56.90
Women’s 50 free. 1. Ranomi in 24.80 2. Heemskerk in 25.10 3. Santamans in 25.27
Men’s 50 free. 1. Manaudou in 21.81 2. Bousquet in 22.68 3. Metella in 22.89
Women’s 200 back. 1. Hosszu in 2.10.03
… Read more »
DAY 1 FULL REPLAY VIDEO
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2h5gyc_ffn-golden-tour-amiens-jour-1_sport
And I also give you the link to watch the finals live today and tomorrow.
Today finals start at 5 PM here in France/11 AM ET in USA
Tomorrow finals start at 3.30 PM here in France/9.30 AM ET in USA
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2aj847_live-ffn-golden-tour-meeting-international-d-amiens_sport
Brazil Team(Cielo,Fratus…) will be in Marseille next month in the third stop of Golden Tour.
These are LCM right? These times seem to be besting many that the top Americans are putting up at this time, of course our Nationals is farther off. Do you think the French/Europeans are more tapered here at this time in their training?
Also, how is Agnel doing?-he struggled so much at these meets last year.
Barndog 2, LCM yes.
I’m surprised to see such good times. I know that Marseille swimmers (Manaudou, Metella, Gilot, GPD, Lacourt….) had a huge training in January and were tired early February at the first Golden Tour meet. This time they look much more ready to swim fast. They are probably a little rested. I have no idea compared to Americans but of course our national championships are in 6 weeks so there are probably some differences.
What I see is that most of the winners’ times are faster in Amiens than in Orlando. But there are more stars in Amiens so that’s not surprising.
About Agnel, he was 6th in the 50 free in 23.35.
Nothing… Read more »
Agnel has just finished second in the 200 free in 1.47.85. Not bad. Not great either.
He was in 1.45.76 last year in January at the Austin Grand Prix but correct me if I’m wrong, I believe it was after altitude training so hard to compare.
We’ll have the true answer at French Nationals. But on the other hand, he was in 1.45.63 there last year and then it went worse and worse and never swam close to that time again.
If you want my opinion, I doubt we’ll see one day again the best Agnel. The Agnel from 2012 when he peaked and was exceptional. I will never write he’s done but it looks like he’s tired and… Read more »
Day 2 results
Women’s 1500 free. 1. Katinka Hosszu in 16.31.19… Read more »
Women’s 100 back. 1. Katinka Hosszu in 1.01.00. 15 minutes after the 1500 free! 😆
Men’s 100 back. 1. Camille Lacourt in 53.60. Take my words guys. He’s back and ready for a big year!
2. Jérémy Stravius in 53.81
Women’s 200 breast. 1. Adeline Martin in 2.29.34 2. Katinka Hosszu in 2.29.64 3rd swim in one hour!
Men’s 200 breast. 1. Marco Koch in 2.10.10
Women’s 50 fly. 1. Inge Dekker and Ranomi tied in 26.07
Men’s 50 fly. 1. Florent Manaudou in 23.49 2. Metella in 23.89 3. Bousquet in 24.22
Women’s 200 free. 1. Femke Heemskerk in 1.56.87
I hope you’re wrong too, Bobo. He seems like a good guy with amazing talent, who for whatever reason(s) hasn’t been quite able to reach his potential yet. But I’m less pessimistic than you, mainly because he’s still only 22, plenty of time to make the necessary mental/physical/coaching adjustments, etc.
I thought he would be the first man to win gold in the 200 free twice. I now doubt it too. I hope he can go back to his best form.
In my opinion his bests day are behind him since he left Pellerin. In my opinion if he hadn’t left he could’ve broken Biedermann WR’s
Then Agnel and Pellerin should swallow their pride and commitment phobia and make up immediately — it’s Valentine’s Day, after all.
Looking forward to watching Hoff battle some of the world’s best tonight in finals. It’ll definitely be a good test as she looks to Rio 2016.