Can Missy Franklin go 5 for 5? Winning the 100m freestyle will be her most difficult race this weekend, as she kicks off preliminaries this morning. She will most likely not be on the 800 freestyle relay this morning, but definitely will be on it tonight.
Tyler Clary is the defending Olympic Champion in the men’s 200 backstroke. His 200 butterfly wasn’t phenomenal yesterday by any means, which may leave him vulnerable to Ryan Lochte or Japan’s Ryosuke Irie.
The women’s 200 breaststroke without Rebecca Soni – now that just seems off. There are a lot of possibilities on who will step up on the intentional stage with her out this year. But on the men’s side all the medalists from London are here in Barcelona – Daniel Gyurta (HUN), Michael Jamieson (GBR) & Ryo Tateishi (JPN).
We’re only half way through the FINA World Championships in Barcelona, and it keeps getting better.
Events for day 5 are the follwing:
Women’s 100m Freestyle
Men’s 200m Backstroke
Women’s 200m Breaststroke
Men’s 200m Breaststroke
Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay
Head up for the event line up for day 5 finals:
Women’s 100m Freestyle SEMI
Men’s 200m IM FINAL
Women’s 200m Breaststroke SEMI
Men’s 100m Freestyle FINAL
Women’s 200m Butterfly FINAL
Men’s 200m Breaststroke SEMI
Women’s 50m Backstroke FINAL
Men’s 200m Backstroke SEMI
Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay FINAL
Important links for week –
SwimSwam Landing Page
Omega Live Timing
Omega PDF Results
Women’s 100m Freestyle PRELIMS
The Australians take the top spot in the 100 freestyle this morning on day 5. Cate Campbell is first at 53.24. She was out like a rocket at the 50, splitting 25.3, one of two women to split sub :26 on the field this morning. It looks like her gold to lose here in Barcelona.
Missy Franklin turned right around from her win last night to clock in at 2nd, 53.36. That time betters her time from Indianapolis already.
There’s been talk that Shannon Vreeland from the USA may be battling an illness as well. The fellow American finds herself in the 8th position after prelims, 54.25.
Sarah Sjostrom from Sweden finished third at 53.61. Britta Steffen, the current work record holder, is 4th at 53.93.
Ranonmi Kromowidjojo was the anchor on the Netherlands bronze medal relay on day 1, and she finds herself at 5th at 54.12. Her teammate, Femake Heemskerk, that was also on that relay is tied for 6th with China’s Yi Tang, both with a time of 54.21.
Known for her dominance as an NCAA swimmer, Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace from the Bahamas has qualified for semi-finals finishing 9th, 54.42. She was the only other sub :26 at the 50 mark (the other was Cate Campbell), displaying her pure raw speed.
World leader Camille Muffat is all the way in 13th place. 54.84 is two seconds slow than her best this year.
Top 16: Campbell, AUS; Frankling, USA; Sjostrom, SWE; Steffan, GER; Kromowidjojo, NED; Yi, CHN; Heemskerk, NED; Vreeland, USA; Vanderpool-Wallace, BAH; Coleman, SWE; Popova, RUS; Campbell, AUS; Muffat, FRA; Blume, DEN; Yuhan, CHN; Prinsloo, RSA
Results.
Men’s 200m Backstroke PRELIMS
After a so-so finish in the 200 butterfly last night, Tyler Clary (USA) is our top qualifier in the 200 backstroke. He is the only sub 1:57 this morning, showing us that why he was the Olympic Champion last summer in London.
Ryan Lochte looked just as effortless as Clary this morning. Lochte finished third at 1:57.19. He’ll have a considerable break between the 200IM final and this semi-final tonight.
Times were relatively off from the best in the world thus far. Great Britain’s Craig McNally took advantage of the slower swims to finished 2nd, 1:57.18. His teammate Christopher Walker-Hebborn is 9th, 1:57.95.
Ranked 1st and 2nd in the world from Japan, Ryosuke Irie and Kosuke Hagino find themselves at 7th and 8th this morning. 1:57.53 and 1:57.52 won’t make it to the finals, and if they want to chance to push the contenders they will need a better swim for tonight.
Top 16: Clary, USA; McNally, GBR; Lochte, USA; Bernek, HUN; Lebherz, GER; Lawson, AUS; Hagino, JPN; Irie, JPN; Walker-Hebborn, GBR; Balog, HUN; Kawecki, POL; Xu, CHN; Turrini, ITA; Rapsys, LTU; De Deus, BRA; Murray, RSA
Women’s 200m Breaststroke PRELIMS
What a swim by USA’s Micah Lawrence here in the preliminaries of the 200 breaststroke. She dropped nearly three seconds from her time in Indianapolis at Trials at finish 1st at 2:21.74.
That is the second best time this year, only behind Rikke Pedersen (DEN) who is 2nd at 2:22.20. Pedersen and Yuliya Efimova (RUS) were strong on the way home, both splitting 36-mids. Efimova is 3rd at 2:23.13.
As a whole, this event looked like most of the women were pushing pretty hard throughout the whole race. Kaneto Rie form Japan is 4th 2:23.91.
Marina Garcia Urzainqui (ESP), Viktoriya Solnceva (UKR), Shi Jinglin (CHN) all improved on their worlds best this year to finish 2:24.21 (5th), 2:24.65 (6th), 2:25.73 (7th).
Breeja Larson was third in the world at 2:23 just a month or so ago in Indianapolis. She swam three seconds slower this morning, to finish all the way back in 10th at 2:26.90. Her last 50 was 38.94, the second slowest in the field of 16.
The Americans made find themselves hurting a bit more than they thought without the dominance of Rebecca Soni this year.
Top 16: Lawrence, USA; Pedersen, DEN; Efimova, RUS; Kaneta, JPN; Garcia Urzainqui, ESP; Solnceva, URK; Shi, CHN; McCabe, CAN; Vall Montero, ESP; Larson, USA; Suzuki, JPN; Foster, AUS; Back, KOR; Yang, KOR; Laukkanen, FIN; Lutherdottir, ISL
Men’s 200m Breaststroke PRELIMS
Marco Koch was the fastest amongst a relatively slow preliminaries session of the men’s 200 breaststroke. He finished .01 under his best time this year, clocking in at 2:09.39.
It was not Michael Jamieson in the second spot from Great Britain, but instead Andrew Willis. He’s been third in the world behind his teammate and Cordes this year. With a solid 2:09.91 he finds himself in 2nd.
Olympic gold medalist Hunarian Danile Gyurta rounded off the third sub 2:10 this morning, at 2:09.94. Unranked Matti Mattsoon of Finland is 4th at 2:10.16, dropping 1.7 off his start time.
Searching to the replace the absence of Kitajima now in the 200 breaststroke, Japan had the 5th and 6th place finishers of the night. Akihiro Yamaguchi is 5th, 2:10.17, and Ryo Tateishi is 6th, 2:10.41. Ryo earned bronze at last years Olympic Games, just touching out Kitajima by .1 at the time.
Team USA had a disappointing finish to the 100 breaststroke and it may be happening again here in the longer distance. Second in the world currently, Kevin Cordes, is our 11th seed at 2:11.40, over three seconds slower than in Indianapolis. His teammate Bernard Johnson barely squeaked it at 15th, 2:11.64.
They arent’t the only two with a shaky swim this morning. Our world leader and silver medalist last summer, Michael Jamieson finds himself in the 14th spot. He has been 2:07 this year, and could only muster a 2:11.47 here this morning. Across the board his splits were slow, so hopefully that was a bad morning swim for him.
Top 16: Koch, GER; Willis, GBR; Gyurta, HUN; Mattsson, FIN; Yamaguchi, JPN; Tateishi, JPN; Titenis, LTU; Sinkevich, RUS; Carnol, LUX; Klobucnik, SVK; Cordes, USA; Amaltdinov, RUS; Vom Lehn, GER; Jamieson, GBR; Johnson, USA; Samilidis, GRE
Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay PRELIMS
The Chinese had a race with the Aussies this morning in heat 1 of the women’s 800m freestyle relay. The Chinese swam with Shiwen Ye, Yiwen Shao, Junjun Guo, Wenqing Zhang. They don’t have the depth like Australia and USA, so while they will replace swimmer tonight, I don’t expect them to give upset for gold.
The Chinese stopped the clock at 7:52.50, while the Australians were 7:52.69. Britany Elmslie, Emma McKeon, Ami Matsuo and Alicia Coutts made up the relay this morning, and most likely most of the names will not be on the relay tonight.
The roster of Team USA this morning was Chelsea Chenault, Karlee Bispo, Madeline Dirado and Jordan Mattern. These women finished 3rd overall at 7:53.03. The two best splits came from Bispo at 1:57.74 and Mattern at 1:57.86. They were both faster than Dirado, and Chenault was 1:58+ on the lead off.
Most likely Missy Franklin, Katie Ledecky and Shannon Vreeland will take three spots on the relay tonight. It is ultimately the coaches’ call in respect to the final line up, and with Vreeland possibly being sick and two solid splits from Mattern and Bispo, there are some choices to be made.
Looks like it should be a run away from Team USA. They have the most depth, being the only team that had two swimmers in the A final last night of Franklin and Vreeland. And there’s not doubt that if Ledecky had swum the race she would have been top eight as well. Their gold to lose tonight.
Top 8: China, Australia, USA, Spain, France, Canada, Japan, Italy
Ledecky, Vreeland, Bispo, Franklin
Official?
http://swimswam.com/american-pull-up-one-prelims-swimmer-to-join-finals-800-free-relay/
They went with straight time then, and Bispo cam out about a tenth ahead. She’s one of those people who probably isn’t going to get a ton of national A team chances in her life because of who’s ahead of her, so glad to see her step up and get a chance to be standing on a podium at the end.
How do you find/see the start list for the relay? The omegatiming document only has the country team names but no individuals. Someone posted the prelim start list, with individuals, earlier today so was wondering where that was found. I would like to see the finals lineup once it is available!
erin – they will update the list about an hour before finals start.
Alain Bernard said this morning on eurosport that VDH said him that James Magnussen said him (I hope you understand me) he has deliberately swum slowly in semi-finals to not be the favorite before the final. Perhaps he didn’t want to swim near Nathan Adrian too. 🙂
Alain Bernard has also liked Jimmy Feigen.
He also believes Gilot can win a medal.
I believe it. That was also my guy feeling. James looked too happy postrace for it to not have been according to plan
Shannon will NOT scratch and the USA will still win!
It would be smart to scratch. Why wasting her energy in a race where she has no chance of shining? The US relay needs 4 swimmers at their best. The American girls will swim against 4 fresh Australian girls.
If Shannon scratches, that would be very cruel to Simone Manuel, who already had her relay leg taken away because she is young. Shannon only beat Manuel by .04 at Trials in the 100. If she scratches the 100, that would be the second denied swim to Manuel, who placed 3rd in the 100 at Trials.
Who is the 4th fresh Aussie girl??
McKeon or Elmslie, Coutts, Palmer and Barratt have no races before the relay tonight.
I don’t think she needs to scratch either; she’s done well this week despite being under the weather. She may be able to pull off a 53 and then a 1:56/57 for the relay which is all she has to do.
It can make the difference between a gold medal and a silver medal.
Little preview of tonight.
Great session to come!
US day with Ryan Lochte, Nathan Adrian and the women’s relay?
Australian day with James Magnussen and the women’s relay?
Men’s 200 IM.
Ryan Lochte will easily win. I see him around 1.54.60.
Hagino and Pereira for the medals.
Men’s 100 free.
Magnussen wins in 47.40.
Adrian second.
Morozov or Gilot third.
Women’s 200 fly.
I want the win for Mireia Belmonte Garcia. She deserves the gold medal after already 5000 meters swum since the start of the meet! Hosszu and Hoshi will be her main rivals. But perhaps the Chinese will wake up. Liuyang Jiao is in lane 1. I think she will… Read more »
Lochte has a chance at a gold in 200m back. I have a feeling it’s going to be a slow field, one that Ryan Murphy probably could have won a medal in this year. Clary just isn’t in the shape that he was last year, but he’ll still be a threat for a medal.
Mags in 47.4? I don’t know. It’s not that he isn’t capable, we all know he is, but that’s a big race and he’s inconsistent even between his premlim and semi swims. I say Maggie in 47.7 and Adrian second in 47.8, but only if mags doesn’t make eye contact with Adrian before the race.
Even though it will mess up my picks, I’m hoping Adams will sneak in for a medal, especially given how well she swam yesterday. Plus, with Micah’s prelim swim this morning, it seems as though SwimMAC is hitting their taper this meet.
who said lochte has a 1:54.6? he had a 1:54.9 in London and I think he was in better shape last year
He is fresher though, the IM is only his second individual event this time around
Mcgill.. but based on his 200 free.. I don´t see Locthe breaking 1:55..
On 100 free.. I think Chiereguinni and Feigen might also put something good for the 3rd place..
Ok, good news. I asked Camille to scratch the 100 free semi-finals and a few minutes later I read she has done it. 🙂
Smart decision. Shannon Vreeland should now do the same.
It’s like you have a direct line to the swimmers Bobo 🙂
Oh! I hope Camille is alright! Bobo, could you please ask Muffat not to scratch 800m free. That event will be a thriller: Ledecky, Friis, Carlin, Boyle, Muffat etc etc.
Sorry swimfanfinland, but there was never any suggestion Camille swims the 800 free. Her meet is finished tonight.
There was never any suggestion that Pellegrini swims 200m free either. Muffat is still on the starting list of W’s 800m free in heat 2 on lane 7.
I keep wishing…
Camille isn’t Italian and hasn’t the clever Philippe Lucas as coach.
Her meet is finished tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, she isn’t ready to swim another individual final against Katie Ledecky this week. She has already been traumatized in the 400 free. Enough for her!
Interesting prelims.
Women’s 100 free.
It looks like Missy is better and better as the meet is progressing. New PB for her in 53.36! With Herasimenia and Ottesen Gray who don’t swim this race, it’s very open for the silver medal and the bronze medal. Missy isn’t a sprinter and will be much less fresh than her main rivals but she can finish second or third. Miss Sjöström and Ranomi will be her most dangerous opponents.
Cate Campbell is alone for the win. She looks so big in the water. Huge impression. It will be a very easy race for her tomorrow.
Shannon Vreeland should scratch the semi-finals this evening to focus on the relay. It would… Read more »
I wish they would go Franklin, Vreeland, Ledecky, Romano.
I would be very surprised if Megan was in the relay. She is now a pure sprinter. She hasn’t swum a good 200 free this year. It would be dangerous.
And put Katie in fourth! She will finish this relay like a bullet!
Romano tweeted in response to a fan that she’s not sure if she’s done swimming yet, which I doubt pertains to this 4×200 but is promising for the medley, especially if Vreeland is indeed sick.
But Romano was twitterless Romano just a couple of days ago. So she has heard my wish?
She joined Twitter during the meet, following the 4×100. So perhaps! 🙂
Of course her meet isn’t done yet! Megan must finish the medley relay on freestyle Sunday!
Hopefully! Just wanted to throw that out there because some were worried as she had tweeted she was “one and done” earlier in the week. So the backpedaling is definitely encouraging!
Romano could “only” swim 1:57.9 a few weeks ago at WUG’s so she is not any better than Bispo or Mattern. Plus, who knows if she has held her endurance over that period – it would be very risky.
And clearly she’s not going to be a better anchor than Ledecky.
I have to say Cate looks very good, but I shall cheer for Sarah anyway 🙂
Of course! Cate stands out but there are three spots on the podium.
And I will reserve my extra cheering for Ranomi 🙂
Ranomi and Cate are side by side in semis. Let’s see how Cate reacts to the presence of an Olympic champion.
…seeing Ranomi and I share the same ethnicity 🙂
I think it will be Cate, Sarah and Ranomi, but in what order…