2018 SC World Championships: Day 2 Finals Preview

2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
• Hangzhou, China
• Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
• SCM (25m)
• Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00* am ET
• *The final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET
• Live Results (Omega)

Medals will be handed out in eight events on day 2 of the 2018 Short Course World Championships. Here’s what to watch for:

Relay Rematches In 100 Free

On day 1, the United States won a thriller in the women’s 4×100 free relay over the top of the Netherlands. Now, most of the top swimmers from those two relays are back for round 2, this time in the individual 100 free semifinals. American Mallory Comerford had the key split, going 51.09 to power the win. She’s the top qualifier in 52.18. But she’s followed closely by Femke Heemskerk (52.27) and Ranomi Kromowidjojo (52.93), who had the two fastest splits of the relay at 50.93 and 50.77, respectively.

Comerford and Kromowidjojo should swim side-by-side in the second semifinal, while Heemskerk will precede them in the first semi.

World Record on Alert From All sides in 100 back

The men’s 100 back might be the race of the meet. Since 2015, Matt Grevers, Kliment Kolesnikov and Xu Jiayu have all broken the world record in this event, while Ryan Murphy broke the vaunted long course world record. All four will be in tonight’s final, spreading across the middle of the pool with Brazilian speedster Guilherme Guido right in the middle. It’s possible that two or more men could break the world record of 48.88 set earlier this year by Xu at the Tokyo World Cup.

Wide Open Women’s 100 Back

The women’s 100 back is equally intriguing. Coming into the meet, the battle looked like American Kathleen Baker vs Australian Emily Seebohm. Baker had been 55.91 in short course and was coming off a long course world record over the summer. Seebohm had been 55.81 over the season.

But fellow American Olivia Smoliga blasted a 55.47 out of heats, taking over the top time in the world this year. She leads the field into the final, with Seebohm second and Baker sitting fifth. Also in the hunt: world record-holder Katinka Hosszu, who is currently third.

Other World records on watch:

Alia Atkinson leads the women’s 50 breast. She set a new world record in the event just a few months ago on the World Cup, though she’s been about a second off that mark so far in Hangzhou. The men’s 100 fly semifinals will be a heat-vs-heat showdown between current world record-holder Chad le Clos and American Caeleb Dressel, who set a textile world record in the long course 100 fly two summers ago. It wouldn’t be shocking to see both relay records go down tonight. The American women were 1.7 seconds off the 4×50 medley mark in prelims, but can likely swap Kelsi Dahlia into fly, among other moves. The American mixed 4×50 free relay can add Dressel and maybe another new leg into the mix after missing by a second and a half this morning.