2022 Short Course Worlds: Day 1 Finals Preview

2022 FINA Short Course World Championships

• Tuesday, December 13 to Sunday, December 18, 2022
• Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Melbourne, Australia
• SCM (25m)
• Prize Money
• Meet Site
• Meet Schedule
• How To Watch
• Meet Roster Index
• Psych Sheets (Updated)
• Live Results
• Day 1 Prelims Live Recap

Day 1 Finals Heat Sheets

The first finals session of the 2022 Short Course World Championships will feature finals of the women’s 400 free, men’s and women’s 200 IM, men’s 1500 free, and men’s and women’s 4×100 free relay alongside semifinals of the 50 fly and 100 back.

We will see a follow-up to the biggest swim of prelims: the men’s 50 fly where two national records went down. Canada’s Ilya Kharun cracked the world junior record and Canadian national record to place 8th while Teon Tzen Wei broke the Singapore record to tie for first place with Noe Ponti of Switzerland. Can they swim even faster in finals? If so, Kharun could set the Canadian national record in this event for the third time in the span of two months.

Three races in this session are on our world record watch, starting with the women’s 100 back final. In prelims, after waiting for 15 minutes before the race in 62-degree Fahrenheit weather due to a delay, three women still blasted 56-low’s. They were led by top seed Louise Hansson of Sweden (56.04) followed by Canada’s Ingrid Wilm (56.15) and Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan (56.35). Hansson came within 1.15 of the world record mark set at 54.89 by Australia’s Minna Atherton in 2019.

The 200 IM world records are within reach on both the men’s and women’s sides. The men’s mark is 1:49.63 set by Ryan Lochte in 2012. Japan’s Daiya Seto is set for a close race with USA’s Carson Foster here. Seto is the top seed after posting a 1:51.76 in prelims, just .13 faster than second seed Foster. 

The women’s 200 IM SCM world record is 2:01.86, a time swam by Katinka Hosszu in 2014. USA’s Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh are the top two seeds in tonight’s final and they were the only swimmers under 2:06.00 in prelims, swimming a 2:04.39 and 2:05.94, respectively. They still have a competitive field behind them, though. 

The session will conclude with finals of the 4×100 free relay where the U.S. and Canada are the defending champions on the women’s side after tying for first place last year. Australia looks like the team to beat this year, though, after topping prelims with about a two-second lead over the field. On the men’s side, top seed Italy is the favorite going into tonight’s 4×100 free relay final; they were the only team under 3:06.00 in prelims with a time of 3:04.46. Notably, Brazil had a huge swim in prelims, coming within 1.3 seconds of their national record to place 2nd (3:06.82).

The competition was off to a rough start in prelims, but with one session under their belt, things seem likely to go smoother in finals. According to World Aquatics, the U.S. streaming issues should be resolved for this finals session which will start at 7:30 pm local time in Melbourne /  3:30 am U.S. Eastern time.