2018 MARE NOSTRUM TOUR, BARCELONA
- June 13th-14th
- Barcelona, Spain
- Club Natacío Sant Andreu
- LCM
- Meet Central
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There weren’t a ton of standout swims at day 2 prelims of the Mare Nostrum stop in Barcelona, with the swimmers doing what was necessary to advance them through to the A-finals.
Blume Blasts Season Best Time (W 100 FR)
However, one that did jump out came in the women’s 100 freestyle, where Dane Pernille Blume blasted splits of 25.5/28.0 to come in at 53.52, improving on her season best time. She previously sat 12th in the world with her 53.73 from the French Golden Tour in March, but now moves into the world’s top 10 with the 9th fastest time.
Taylor Ruck, who won both the 50 and 200 free on day 1, qualified 2nd overall in 53.70, a full second clear of 3rd place Kayla Sanchez (54.74). Rikako Ikee (54.75) was right behind her for 4th, and Missy Franklin (56.45) qualified for the B-final in 14th. Ikee won the first stop in Canet, just ahead of Ruck, and Franklin swam just .01 faster in the heats before going 56.32 in the final.
The 17-year-old from Japan also won the 50 fly in Canet, and cruised to the top seed there this morning in 26.30.
HOSSZU CRUISES THROUGH TO FINALS, BAKER MISSES 50 BACK
Ruck also made the A-final of the women’s 200 back, qualifying through in 3rd in 2:13.37, with Katinka Hosszu leading the pack in 2:12.54. Franklin, who only swam one race on day 1, did so again here and didn’t swim.
Hosszu also cruised into the final of the women’s 200 IM, posting the #2 time (2:13.39) to Russian Viktoriya Andreeva (2:13.36), with Siobhan-Marie O’Connor (2:13.44) and Kathleen Baker (2:13.69) 3rd and 4th. Baker, who lit the pool on fire on day 1 with a 58.77 in the 100 back, had a bit of a redemption swim here after missing the A-final in the 50 back. She finished 10th in 28.94, as Finnish Record Holder Mimosa Jallow (28.07) leads the way.
Andrew’s 50s, Men’s BR Field Loaded
Michael Andrew continued his strong 50m swims by taking the 2nd seed in the men’s 50 free and the 3rd seed in the 50 breast, registering times of 22.40 and 27.88 respectively. In the freestyle, Bruno Fratus, who Andrew beat head-to-head at the TYR Pro Derby, qualified 1st in 22.21.
In the 50 breast, day 1 100 winner Yasuhiro Koseki (27.53) and Belarusian Ilya Shymanovich (27.64) sit atop the pack. In the 200, Koseki (2:10.35) leads a stacked field that includes Russian Kirill Prigoda (2:10.83), 2017 world champion Anton Chupkov (2:10.98), 2015 world champion Marco Koch (2:12.04), and world record holder Ippei Watanabe (2:12.17).
OTHER EVENTS
- Ireland’s Conor Ferguson leads the men’s 100 back field in 55.59, with Poland’s Kacper Stokowski (55.89) the only other one sub-56.
- American Katie Meili, the bronze medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games and silver medalist at 2017 World Championships in this event, took the top seed in the women’s 100 breast in 1:07.34, with fellow American Molly Hannis (1:07.83) sitting 3rd.
- Russia’s Svetlana Chimrova topped the women’s 200 fly heats in 2:10.01, with Hungarian Liliana Szilagyi (2:11.27) 2nd and U.S. junior Cassidy Bayer (2:12.05) also getting through in 5th.
- Yauhen Tsurkin (52.83) and James Guy (53.09) went 1-2 in the men’s 100 fly prelims, with Ryan Held (53.83) coming within a few tenths of his lifetime best to also make the A-final in 7th.
- Japanese youngster Katsuhiro Matsumoto leads the men’s 200 free in 1:49.10, with notables Aleksandr Krasnykh (1:49.35) and Duncan Scott (1:49.50) through in 2nd and 4th.
- China’s Bi Wenxin, the 8th fastest in the world this year in the women’s 400 free, qualified 1st in that event in 4:13.27, narrowly ahead of GBR’s Holly Hibbott (4:13.62)
Go Missy!
It looks like she isn’t swimming tonight.
Improvement
Taylor Rucks wins the 200BK (2:07.8) after 2nd place in the 100FR (53.3)… almost matching her CWG times. Pan Pacs is gonna be ~lit~.
Do you know what she is going to swim in Pam Pac? Free 50-100-200, Back 100-200,
all sort of relays?
She still has to qualify for Pan Pacs. Canadian Trials are in mid-July.
You are right, so I rephrase my question. Where is she going to compete at trials?
I know that she is young and can manage a loaded program. But there are still some limits and the overloading can hurt the performance. At any of her possible events at PP she will face very strong competition at a world class level. There would be no walking-in-the park races.
I’d imagine she would still race all of those events at trials, race them prelims at Pan Pacs; then scratching will come down to medal potential. She’s already proven she can handle the workload at CWGs. Plus, a heavy meet schedule at an international level is fantastic prep for say… the Olympics.
No semi finals and no relay prelims I believe so she can probably handle the schedule
Trials are coming up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Thank you for correcting my English. This is the way I’m learning it: with nice people correcting me nicely. So if you haven’t understood my question at the first place and didn’t get the sense of it from the context of discussion there is the correction: which events will Taylor Ruck compete in at Canadian trials.
Thank you.
I hope Baker continues to swim the 200IM LC…would be a fun race to watch with her Eastin and Margalis at nationals.
Don’t forget Cox
Alex Walsh too.
And if Regan Smith can buy 50 meters of breaststroke in the next few weeks….
Walsh can really make top 4 IMO…. Margalis, Cox, Baker, Walsh. Or Eastin unless she puts focus into 400.