American Rhyan White Swims Best Time in 100 Back at YOG Day 1 Prelims

2018 YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES

• October 6th-18th, 2018
• Swimming Portion: Octoer 7th-12th, 2018
• Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Schedule/Results
• Entries

After a rousing opening ceremony on Sunday, day 1 of the swimming portion at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games began on Sunday morning in Buenos Aires, Argentina with 7 preliminary events.

While some countries (including the United States) didn’t send their top juniors, there are enough stars present to make the meet a worthy show. That includes on day 1 Hungary’s Kristof Milak in the men’s 400 free and Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov in the 100 back.

Men’s 100 Back – Prelims

Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov, who holds 2 World Records, but not in the 100 long course backstroke, cruised to the top spot in the men’s 100 backstroke final. His split-spread of 26.60-27.66 was half of that done by the swimmers behind him, showing his early easy speed din the race.

Also in the top 3 is Italian junior record holder Thomas Ceccon. The lone American in the event, Ethan Harder, finished 10th in 56.80.

1. Kliment Kolesnikov, Russia – 54.26
2. Daniel Martin, Romania – 54.46
3. Thomas Ceccon, Italy – 55.33
4. Tomoe Hvas, Norway – 55.64
5. Guanbin Wang, China – 56.01
6. Manuel Martos Bacarizo, Spain – 56.03
7. Lewis Blackburn, Australia – 56.24
8. Gabor Zombori, Hungary – 56.46
9.  Shirari Nataraj, India – 56.75
10. Ethan Harder, USA – 56.80
11. Alanas Tautkus, Lithuania – 56.81
12. Sebastian Somerset, Canada – 56.84
13. Abdellah Ardjoune, Algeria – 56.93
14. Mu-Lun Chuang, Chinese Taipei – 56.94
15. Jack Kirby, Barbados – 57.03
16. Dimuth Peiris, Sri Lanka – 57.34

Women’s 100 Back – Prelims

The first heat of the women’s 100 backstroke prelims wasn’t taking any chances, with the top 3 qualifiers to the semi-finals all coming out of the early heat. That was led by American Rhyan White, who swam a new lifetime best of 1:00.88 (she was previously 1:01.57 at the 2017 US Open) to qualify ahead of the more heralded Kaylee McKeown of Australia and Polina Egorova of Russia.

Chinese 15-year old Peng Xuwei, who almost broke a World Junior Record at the PSS stop in Austin earlier this year in the 200 back, qualified 4th in 1:01.78.

1. Rhyan White, USA – 1:00.88
2. Kaylee McKeown, Australia – 1;01.29
3. Polina Egorova, Russia – 1:01.74
4. Xuwei Peng, China – 1:01.78
5. Madison Broad, Canada – 1:01.86
6. Daria Vaskina, Russia – 1:02.05
7. Tamara Frias Molina – 1:02.13
8. Ingeborg Loyning, Norway – 1:02.50
9. Gina Galloway, New Zealand – 1:02.66
10. Anastasiya Shkurdai, Belarus – 1:02.68
11. Maria Pessanha, Brazil – 1:02.89
12. Laura Ilyes, Hungary – 1:02.97
13. Mariella Venter, South Africa, 1:03.15
14. Tatiana Salcutan, Moldova, 1:03.16
15. Fernanda Goeij, Brazil – 1:03.30
16. Cristina Garcia Kirichenko, Spain – 1:03.54

Men’s 100 Breast – Prelims

As Cameron van der Burgh edges off toward retirement, a new breaststroker is emerging in South Africa: Michael Houlie, a University of Tennessee commit, qualified 1st through in the 100 breaststroke final in 1:01.37.

He got caught in a battle with Chinese swimmer Sun Jiajun, who was right next to him in the 1st heat and qualified 2nd in 1:01.43. Houlie took his swim out in a blistering 27.51, which was more than a second better than Sun (or anyone else in the field for that matter). In fact, his opening 50 meters was just half-a-second from the World Junior Record on its own.

He paid on the back-half, though, as Sun nearly ran him down.

Japan, who have surprisingly never medaled in a breaststroke race at the Youth Olympics in spite of the country’s overall quality in the discipline, had the 3rd and 4th-place qualifiers.

1. Michael Houlie, South Africa – 1:01.37
2. Sun Jiajun, China – 1:01.43
3. Taku Taniguchi, Japan – 1:01.68
4. Yu Hanaguruma, Japan – 1:02.22
5. Vladislav Gerasimneko, Russia – 1:02.46
6. Jan Kalusowski, Poland – 1:02.63
7. Caspar Corbeau, Netherlands – 1:02.74
8. Denis Petrashov, Kyrgyzstan – 1:2.82
9. Thanh Bao Pham, Vietnam – 1:02.99
10. Vitor Pinheiro de Souza, Brazil – 1:03.18
11. Sebestyen Bohm, Hungary – 1:03.21
12. Juri Dijkstra, Netherlands – 1:03.53
13. Santiago Saint-Upery, Uruguay – 1:03.55
14. Demirkan Demir, Turkey, 1:03.68
15. Monvef Balamane, Algeria – 1:03.72
16. Andre Grindheim, Norway – 1:03.80

Women’s 50 breast – prelims

Following in the footsteps of a past Youth Olympic (and Olympic) champion from Lithuania Ruta Meilutyte, Agne Seleikaite took the top qualifying spot in the women’s 50 breaststroke in 31.55. The time is the fastest ever swum in 3 editions of the Youth Olympic Games by any swimmer besides her countrymate Meilutyte.

1. Agne Seleikaite, Lithuania – 31.55
2. Mona McSharry, Ireland – 31.78
3. (TIE) Hannah Brunzell, Sweden/Avery Wiseman, Canada – 31.81
5. Niamh Coyne, Ireland – 31.90
6. Chelsea Hodges, Australia – 31.91
7. Christie May Chue, Singapore – 31.95
8. Laura Lahtinen, Finland – 32.01
9. Christin Mundell, South Africa – 32.16
10. Weronika Hallmann, Poland – 32.24
11. Anastasia Makarova, Russia – 32.35
12. Kotryna Teterevkova, Lithuania – 32.42
13. Tina Celik, Slovenia – 32.44
14. Nina Kucheran, Canada – 32.48
15. Gulsen Samanci, Turkey – 32.56
16. Saovanee Boonamphai, Thailand – 32.67

Women’s 200 IM – prelims

With the biggest name of the field, Kaylee McKeown, qualifying just 8th with a 2:17.03, the top of the table in the 200 IM prelims was left to Isarel’s Anastasia Gorbenko, who won the race in 2:14.74. Gorbeko, a superior IM’er, out-paced France’s Cyrielle Duhamel by just .05 seconds, though Duhamel (a great 400 IMer) very-nearly chased down her opponent in the last 50 meters.

1. Anastasia Gorbenko, Israel – 2:14.74
2. Cyrielle Duhamel, France – 2:14.79
3. Miku Kojima, Japan – 2:15.37
4. Anja Crevar, Serbia – 2:15.55
5. Neza Klancar, Slovenia – 2:15.94
6. Anna Pirovano, Italy – 2:16.14
7. Kate Douglass, USA – 2:16.47
8. Kaylee McKeown, Australia – 2:17.03
9. Nikolette Pavlopoulou, Greece – 2:17.35
10. Eunsol Yun, South Korea – 2:17.35
11. Alba Vazquez Ruiz, Spain – 2:17.54
12. Maria Pessanha, Brazil – 2:17.94
13. Ajna Kesely, Hungary – 2:17.98
14. Malene Rypestoel, Norway – 2:18.15
15. Nea-Amanda Heinola, Finland – 2:19.01
16. Aleksandra Knop, Poland – 2:19.56

Men’s 400 free – prelims

We can’t be certain after just one prelims swim, but Hungary’s Kristof Milak, with 9 entries at this meet, played it surprisingly-close to not qualifying f or the final in the men’s 400 free. Some reports have indicated that he was sick in September, which may have interrupted his training for this meet.

As it was, he qualified 3rd for the final in 3:51.99, which was less-than-half-a-second away from being outside of the top 8.

His countrymate Akos Kalmar was ahead of him in 3:51.73, while Japan’s Keisuke Yoshida qualified 1st in 3:51.68.

1. Keisuke Yoshida, Japan – 3:51.68
2. Akos Kalmar, Hungary – 3:51.73
3. Kristof Milak, Hungary – 3:51.99
4. Denis Loktev, Israel – 3:52.04
5. Ahmed Hafnaoui, Tunisia – 3:52.06
6. Marco De Tullio, Italy – 3:52.31
7. Huy Hoang Nguyen, Vietnam – 3:52.40
8. Antonio Djakovic, Switzerland – 3:52.42

Mixed 400 free Relay – prelims

Brazil was dominant in the prelims of the mixed 400 medley relay. Anchored by a 55.17 from Rafaela Raurich, they were easily the top qualifiers into the final.

They won’t rest easy, though, as Russia, who just snuck into the final, has Kliment Kolesnikov, among a number of other swimmers, to swap onto their mixed medley relay in finals. Kolesnikov’s addition alone should net them at least 3 seconds against the field in the race.

The USA finished 18th in 3:43.68

1. Brazil – 3:30.92
2. Israel – 3:33.57
3. China – 3:33.76
4. Germany – 3:34.09
5. Australia – 3:34.48
6. Japan – 3:35.95
7. Poland – 3:36.69
8. Russia – 3:36.98