2023 World Cup Athens Day 2 Prelims: Aussie Simpson In The 100 Free Spotlight

2023 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – ATHENS

• Friday, October 13th – Sunday, October 15th
• Athens, Greece
• LCM (50m)
• Prelims 9:00am (EEST)/ 2:oo am (EDT)
• Finals 6:00 pm (EEST)/ 11:00 am (EDT)
• Meet Central
• Entries
• Live Results
• Day 1 Finals Live Recap

We saw some explosive performances last night in Athens and day two is shaping up to bring the heat as well, with swimmers staking their claim on events during this morning’s prelims.

After reaping gold last night in the men’s 200m back, 19-year-old Pieter Coetze of South Africa is gunning for a double, taking the top seed in the 50m sprint.

Coetze, who has committed to swim for Cal stateside, logged a time of 24.85 to land lane 4 in the only sub-25-second outing of the field. Behind him was Michael Andrew of the United States who touched in 25.18 while Aussie dynamo Isaac Cooper was next in line with a morning result of 25.25.

Last week in Berlin, MA took the 50m back gold in a time of 24.47 with Cooper on his heels in 24.59 for silver. Bronze medalist Ksawery Masiuk of Poland is not competing here in Athens while Coetze is making his World Cup debut here.

Erika Fairweather of New Zealand already topped the women’s 400m free here in Athens and will strive to achieve the same result in the 200m free.

The Olympian notched a morning swim of 1:57.79 but Hong Kong’s Olympic multi-medalist Siobhan Haughey lurks right behind with a casual 1:58.78.

European Junior Championships gold medalist Nikolett Padar of Hungry (1:58.82), Aussie Lani Pallister (1:59.30), and Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands (1:59.63) are also in the hunt. The American pair of Claire Weinstein (1:59.80) and Torri Huske (1:59.81) has a shot as well during this evening’s main event.

However, if Haughey is anywhere near her form from last week in Berlin, the field will have a major task on their hands. 25-year-old Haughey ripped a 1:55.10 scorcher for gold, establishing a new World Cup Record in the process. That got the former University of Michigan Wolverine to the wall about a full second ahead of her competition.

Huske also made the final of the women’s 50m fly, scoring the 3rd seed at 26.17. Landing lane 4 was China’s Zhang Yufei, the Asian Games MVP who already landed atop the podium in the 200m fly last night.

Zhang clocked 25.47 to hold .03 advantage over Olympic legend Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden. Canada’s Maggie MacNeil will also appear in the final, having captured the 5th seed in 26.46.

Sjostrom is coming off of bagging gold in this 50mfly last week in Berlin, notching a new World Cup record of 25.06.

Last night Kaylee McKeown of Australia came close to breaking the World Record in the women’s 50m back, with her winning effort of 27.02 falling only .04 outside the mark.

The Olympic multi-champion led the way in this morning’s 100m back heats, clocking a time of 59.89 as the field’s sole sub-minute performer.

Canada will have 2 representatives in this evening’s final, as Kylie Masse and Ingrid Wilm produced heats outings of 1:00.55 and 1:00.74, respectively.

However, it will take a magical performance to stand in the way of the McKeown train. In Berlin, the 22-year-old fired off a time of 57.95 to down the longstanding 100m back World Cup Record that had been on the books since 2015.

We reported how Cody Simpson of Australia earned his first elite international podium placement last night after tying Andrew for silver in the men’s 100m fly event.

This morning he continued his momentum, clocking a time of 48.99 to enter tonight’s 100m free final in the pole position. His result checks in as the former pop superstar’s lifetime best, knocking .12 off of his previous PB of 49.11 notched at this year’s Australian World Trials.

However, if Simpson wants gold, he’ll most likely need to hack even more time off of that best-ever performance, as Italy’s Thomas Ceccon logged 47.97 as the champion last week in Berlin.

The 100m back World Record holder lurks as the 3rd seed out of this morning’s heats with a time of 49.14 while Trinidad & Tobago Olympian Dylan Carter seeks hardware with a 2nd-seeded 49.10.

Of note, South Africa’s Chad Le Clos missed the final, settling for 12th in 50.00 but teammate Coetze sneaked into the 1free final as the 8th-seeded swimmer in 49.80.

Additional Top Seeds

• No man dipped under the 2:00 threshold in the morning heats of the 200m IM. Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys was the fastest performer, hitting 2:01.38 while American Kieran Smith was nearly the same in 2:01.40. The gold medalist from last week, South African Matthew Sates, scored the 5th seed in 2:02.12.
• Chinese speedster Qin Haiyang led the men’s 50m breast pack this morning, stopping the clock in a result of 26.83. It’ll be a fast and furious fight to the finish, with Dutchman Arno Kamminga (27.20), Italian Nicolo Martinenghi (27.21) and British Olympic champion Adam Peaty (27.30) all viable candidates for gold. American Andrew made this event’s final as well, seeded 6th in 27.44.
• Tes Schouten of the Netherlands was the top performer in the women’s 100m breast, putting up an AM swim of 1:07.12. That gave her a .04 advantage over Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte who notched 1:07.16 as the only other sub-1:08 swimmer. 22-year-old Schouten and 26-year-old Meilutyte will each try to improve upon their respective 4th and 5th place finishes from last week.
• The men’s 200m fly saw Trenton Julian of the United States score the top spot with a time of 1:59.58. Japan’s Takumi Terada was the only other competitor to venture under the 2:00 barrier, clocking 1:59.93 for the #2 seed. In Berlin, South African Sates scorched a time of 1:55.87, his best-ever, to top the podium. He punched a swim of 2:02.90 this morning to be positioned 4th headed into tonight’s final event.