2018 MARE NOSTRUM TOUR, BARCELONA
- June 13th-14th
- Barcelona, Spain
- Club Natacío Sant Andreu
- LCM
- Meet Central
- Schedule
- Entry List
- Live Results
The opening session of the Barcelona stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour saw a ton of big names hit the water, including a few who weren’t at the first stop in Canet.
One of those swimmers is American Kathleen Baker, who dropped her previous season best of 1:00.20 down to 59.47 in the women’s 100 back, moving her into 7th in the world rankings and giving her the top seed for the final. It’s also notable that it’s her fastest in-season swim ever, having only gone faster at the 2016 Olympic Trials, 2016 Olympics, 2017 World Trials and 2017 World Championships.
Denmark’s Mie Nielsen took the 2nd seed in 1:00.35, slightly faster than she was in the prelims in Canet before she won the final in 59.88, and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Katinka Hosszu made it through in 5th (1:01.03).
For Missy Franklin, who swam the 100 back in Canet in a time of 1:03.48, she opted to scratch out in Barcelona, only swimming the 200 free this morning. The 2013 world champion had a good swim there, making it through to the A-final in 4th in 1:59.36, over a second faster than she was in the prelims in Canet and not far off her time from finals (1:58.91).
Canadian teen Kayla Sanchez leads that women’s 200 free field, improving her lifetime best by a tenth in 1:58.17. Her teammates Rebecca Smith (1:59.29) and Taylor Ruck (1:59.65) had solid swims for 3rd and 5th, and Rikako Ikee (2:00.09) and Hosszu (2:00.29) also got through in 6th and 7th. Ruck won the race in Canet in a time of 1:55.68.
Ruck also swam the 50 free, where she took the top seed in 24.92 ahead of the Netherlands’ Kim Busch (25.20). Prior to 2018 Ruck had never broken 25 seconds, but has now done so nine times.
Also making headlines on day 1 was Michael Andrew, who took a pair of #1 seeds in the men’s 50 back and 50 fly.
In the 50 back, he cracked 25 seconds for the 5th time in his career in 24.96, moving him into 11th in the world rankings. Canet winner Ben Treffers and American Ryan Held are tied for 2nd in 25.70.
While Andrew didn’t swim the 50 back on the first stop, he did do the 50 fly where he was 3rd, and took the top seed in that event this morning as well in a time of 23.46. That’s a tenth faster than Canet, but still a tenth off his season best of 23.37 which has him in a tie for 8th in the world. Andriy Govorov, who won the first stop in 23.04, sits 2nd in 23.70.
OTHER EVENTS
- After putting up some of the world’s fastest swims of the year in the 50 and 100 breast in Canet, Russian Yuliya Efimova had a decent preliminary swim in the 50 breast in Barcelona, posting the top time of 30.79. American Molly Hannis, who is 2nd fastest in the world this year (with Efimova 3rd), qualified 3rd in 31.21, and Katie Meili (31.38) is 4th. Efimova also swam the 200 breast, where she squeaked into the A-final in 8th (2:28.10) with Spain’s Jessica Vall Montero (2:27.01) leading the way.
- Shinri Shioura leads the stacked men’s 100 free field in 49.42, with Japanese countryman Katsuhiro Matsumoto 2nd in 49.68. Held also made the A-final in this event in 5th.
- Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki was the only man sub-1:00 in a stacked men’s 100 breast, checking in at 59.91. He was the runner-up to Adam Peaty on the first stop in 59.55. Notably making it to the final was Ilya Shymanovich, Anton Chupkov and Kirill Prigoda, while Andrew swam the 9th fastest time in 1:01.65 and will swim the B-final.
- Poland’s Radoslaw Kawecki qualified 1st in the men’s 200 back in 2:02.23, just ahead of U.S. junior Bryce Mefford (2:02.46).
- Bence Biczo of Hungary topped the men’s 200 fly field in 1:58.88, followed by James Guy (1:59.09) and Viktor Bromer (1:59.26).
- Russia’s Svetlana Chimrova clocked 57.73 in the women’s 100 fly for the top seed, not far off her season best 57.39 from the Russian Championships in April. Rikako Ikee, winner in Canet, qualified 2nd in 58.30, and Rebecca Smith is 3rd in 59.05.
- David Verraszto leads the men’s 200 IM in 2:02.63, with Gunnar Bentz making his first appearance on the circuit in 2nd in 2:03.58.
- Norwegian Henrik Christiansen was the fastest in the men’s 400 free in 3:53.14, as he’ll look to improve on his runner-up finish in Canet. The winner there Naito Ehara easily advanced in 3rd.
Congrats Kathleen! Go Bears!
Can we please get an event by event breakdown like we do at the Tyr Series meets? It is much easier to follow that way.
After the last two weeks we can now confirm that the American woman Hold on the medley relay should still be intact. I’d like to see them break the world record by another second. Here’s to hoping
And Fabian still schwingen his schloegl by winning the B final of the 100 breast.
Please post final results. Or will there be another article on Finals from Day 1?
Baker and Smoliga for 100, Baker and Smith for 200. Also throw in Deloof for 100 who knows she could go 59 low and make top 3. It will be close for the 100. If Smoliga can work on her pacing or just hold on she could also be top 3 in 200.
Regan Smith went :58 last summer. She’s still improving. I’d take her in the 100 also
Smoliga’s AR in the 50 back and recent improvements in the 200 make the 100 an interesting event to watch
If you had no chance to watch Smith at TYR Pro in Santa Clara (or Austin) you don’t know what you’re dealing with. Flew up and watched her at Santa Clara in person last week. She isn’t tall. She has no shocking physical gifts. But she competes like nobody else save Ledecky. At only 16, she is supremely confident because she knows her competition can’t outwork her. She’s so fit. She handled Smoliga in 50 shootout and Smoliga and Ruck in 100 Back in Austin with a cold, cool calm. Beat Masse, Smoliga, Deloof and everyone else in backs in Santa Clara. She has beaten Masse, Ruck, Smoliga, Baker, and others head to head over the past year. Worlds, world… Read more »
Wow! People can use it as essay for college admission. It’s free to copy, isn’t it? That is so nice when a young swimmer has such dedicated fans, already. Unless of course you are a close relative.
I don’t want to spoil the spirit of your very emotional speech but there is some small technical inconsistency. If she is much superior of Masse at walls and has at the end very close race then Masse has to be superior of her to the same degree at stroke.
Please, don’t take it an offence. I like this girl and the fact that neither she nor her coach don’t speak of her potentials and her goals the way you just… Read more »
Sorry. Maybe a bit much passion. 🤓Just liked what I saw. No more essays. But the kid is good.
There is nothing to be sorry about.
Ikee 56.40 in the 100 fly!
Sarah… watch out 2020
I find it amusing that most people on this site don’t think Li Bingjie will beat Ledecky but on the other hand believe Ikee will seriously challenge Sjostrom. Perhaps it’s because Sjostrom is not American. 🙂She is still about a second faster than the Japanese girl in 100 fly and hasn’t shown significant drop yet.
Penny in 2016 . There is a lot of swimming to go before 2020 & a lot of shoulder rotations & window for injury / overuse . The thing about SS & KL is they have managed/ built to be injury free.
Yes, people also said in 2016 that Penny Oleksiak will challenge Sjostrom in Tokyo.🤔
Ikee’s 100 fly is 0.9 second slower than Sjostrom’s. Milak’s 100 fly is 0.86 second slower than Dressel’s and he is also 18 years old. If people think Sjostrom should watch out for Ikee, then please let Dressel watch out for Milak too.
Correction: Ikee’s CURRENT 100 fly that she has now swum twice this season, most recently at a no-stakes in-season meet is 0.9 seconds slower than Sjostrom’s best time ever. That’s why everyone is so high on Ikee now. I’m pretty sure 56.4 is the fastest in-season time ever by someone not named Sarah Sjostrom.
I don’t think there exists so-called in-season swim for most Asian swimmers, especially their sprinters. If you look at the historical results of Japanese swimmers, you can find a large proportion of them are not significantly faster in summer.
Last year, Ikee was 56.89 in January, 56.93 in May, and then finished 6th with 57.08 in Budapest and swam 57.25 in Indianapolis.
Nice race by Rebecca Smith at 200free . Now all leading Canadians are 1:57 and below.
Americans have only two.
Almost like the Canadians have had trials and a massive meet already.
Their pan pac trials arnt until later this summer; they are in the middle of hard training at the moment… So its still pretty impressive to see a lifetime best. Especially since Rebecca Smith was seemingly struggling for a while to take her 1:52 SC 200 free to a LC equivalent. Woo!
As pointed out already, Canadians are in training for Pan Pacs, Pan Pac Juniors, Youth Olympics… the Juniors had a hard week of training camp just before the Zajac. Such is the uptick in Canadian women’s swimming that some events actually require you to be near your best just to qualify for the national team, just ask Taylor Ruck. Trials are July 18-22.