Women’s 50 free prelims
The USA’s Jessica Hardy and Sweden’s Therese Alshammar tied at 24.82 for the top seed in the women’s 50 freestyle prelims, though both had other races on their plates in this day (Hardy with the 50 breaststroke prelim literally about 5 minutes later, and Alshammar with the 50 fly final in the evening, where she’s the favorite). Neither swimmer seemed to work too hard, though Alshammar seemed to labor the least out of the pair.
Other swimmers under 25-seconds in this prelim included Aleksandra Herasimenia from Belarus (24.85), who is having an awesome meet after tying for the gold in the 100 freestyle on day 6. Germany’s Dorothea Brandt also swam a solid 24.86. Brandt, unlike Hardy, would be satisfied with that swim and scratch the 50 breaststroke just a few heats later.
Auburn senior-to-be Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace continued a very good meet with a 25.28 career-best (and Bahamas National Record) to make the semifinal.
Full women’s 50 prelims results.
Women’s 50 breaststroke prelims
Jessica Hardy pulled a huge double to take the top seed in the 50 free, and then turnaround less than 10 minutes later and take a commanding top seed in this 50 breaststroke as well. Her swim of 30.20 cleared the rest of the field by half-a-second, and puts her in excellent position to make a run at her own World Record in the final in only 29.80, where in the final this 50 breaststroke comes first.
One might wonder, with two top swimmers in both events, FINA would put these two races back-to-back, but this is a very new phenomenon. I think it wouldn’t surprise most to find out that there’s never been a swimmer who has medaled in their career in both the 50 breaststroke and 50 freestyle. If more follow in their footsteps, however, FINA might have to consider tweaking this schedule a bit.
Rebecca Soni and Yuliya Efimova tied for the 2nd seed in 30.72, and this gives Trojan Aquatics the top three seeds in the semifinal in this event. Also under 31 seconds are Jennie Johansson of Sweden (30.89) and Leisel Jones (30.93). Qualifying 7th, also out of Sweden, is Arizona State Sundevil Rebecca Ejdervik who never earned the respect she ought have at the NCAA level, in 31.19.
Full women’s 50 breaststroke prelims results.
Men’s 50 backstroke prelims
Gerhard Zandberg of South Africa, who’s the defending bronze medalist in this race, was the only swimmer in the field under 25 seconds with a top-seed of 24.72. France’s Camille Lacourt, the defending virtual-World-Champion in this race, took 2nd in 25.03, and Germany’s Helge Meeuw in 25.04 will be 3rd. The rest of the finalists were all tightly bunched with Flori Lang with Flori Lang leading the bunch in 25.12. Aschwin Wildeboer of Spain tied swam a 25.14, defending silver medalist Junya Koga is 6th in 25.17, and defending champion Liam Tancock is 10th in 25.26.
The Americans Nick Thoman and David Plummer tied for 8th in 25.22.
Full 50 backstroke prelims results.
Women’s 400 medley relay prelims
The Americans put up a commanding prelims time of 3:56.95 to put up an authoritative swim to ensure the world that there would be no slip-ups like they had in the prelims in 2009. Their splits were Pelton – 1:00.19, Soni – 1:04.97, Magnuson – 57.54, Weir – 54.25. Based on that prelim time, we’re going to say something we didn’t think we’d say about a relay in this meet – the World Record could be within reach! That mark is currently held by the Chinese in 3:52.19 from the 2009 World Championships.
The USA’s finals lineup should be Natalie Coughlin, Rebecca Soni, Dana Vollmer, and Missy Franklin. Based on what we’ve seen from that quartet so far, we know that they are capable of dropping: .8 from Coughlin on the backstroke leg, about even from Soni on the breaststroke leg, 1.1 from Dana Vollmer on the butterfly leg, and 1.2 from Franklin on the freestyle leg. That puts them at about a 3:53.8, without accounting any credit for relay starts. I wouldn’t go so far as to call this World Record, but it’s definitely not outside of the realm of possibility tonight.
Russia looked pretty good for 2nd in 3:59.08, though they swam their top lineup. China is 3rd in 3:59.44, though they may have a tweak or two to make, but none for huge differences.
Australia in 4th has immense gains to make with changes, especially on their backstroke and freestyle spots. They actually had butterflier/IM’er Stephanie Rice swimming backstroke (respectable 1:01.47, though probably not a long-term change), which can cut them huge time. The British also could replace their backstroker and freestyler for some big gains.
But when you break down the times, even with relay improvements, it looks like most of the teams will have trouble even matching the Americans’ prelims time. I like the Australians, British, and Chinese to compete for medals, in that order.
Three great darkhorse picks in this race failed to make the final, with Denmark placing 9th, Sweden placing 10th, and especially the Netherlands placing 11th. The dutch were relatively close to an A-realy, aside from their freestyle leg, but still were 3 seconds away from qualifying, as none of their first three legs really swam near their potential.
Full 400 medley relay prelims results, with splits.
Full Disclosure: It’s been a long week, and to ensure that I live through the last 3 sessions, I’ve chosen not to wait and recap the men’s 1500. We’ll take a look at it in the morning recaps.
Australian team should have never allowed Jarrod Killey to swim the 1500. It’s so embarrassing, really. Lotte Friis swam it faster, and Im sure even Melissa Gorman too.
I sort of hope not Schipper -she is actually a poor relay swimmer. Rice would be a better pick -& is actually more entitled to swim it given she was 2nd at Nats & gave up her place because of 100 fly im clash.
The 1500-whaaaaahhhh! FFS.
I think the Aussies will swim Seebohm, Jones, Schipper and Coutts. Schipper can at least match Coutt’s fly time from the heats, Alicia will take a second off Dingjan’s freestyle time and Seebohm will cut two seconds off Rice’s split.
So that cuts the Aussie time to 3:56 and change. Then I expect Liesel Jones to slice another second off her split to boot. But it will be a close battle with the Chinese for the silver.