Race Footage: Cordes Semi Final presented by Universal Sports

This is complete race footage of the men’s 100 breastroke semi final at the 2013 FINA World Championships courtesy of swimswam partner Universal Sports Network.

See 100 breaststroke race coverage as reported by swimswam editor-in-chief, Braden Keith: 

A lackluster men’s 100 breaststroke semi-final was all about getting through to the final. Christian Sprenger won the second men’s heat in 59.23, and Kevin Cordes won the first heat in 59.78, and those two will be the top two seeds. Sprenger did his time by opening up very well, while Cordes had to line up his finish perfectly to get his fingertips in.

Though the times overall weren’t as fast as what we saw in the semi-finals in London, we saw it matched in that a swimmer broke a minute and didn’t final (Kirill Strelnikov from Russia, who was 9th in 59.95).

In a tie for that second seed with Cordes is the defending Olympic Champion and World Record holder Cameron van der Burgh from South Africa. Either his knee injury suffered a month ago is really bothering him, or he’s limited the number of dolphin kicks off of his start (or, most likely, some combination) as that’s a full second slower than he was in the semi-finals last year.

Slovenia’s Damir Dugonjic looks very good, swimming a 59.80 for the 4th seed, which is his first time under a minute in textile.

Joining those four in the final will be Brazil’s Felipe Lima and American Nic Fink, who were matching 59.84′s, Italy’s Fabio Scozzoli, who was a 59.90 and Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima, who needed a lifeline to even swim this event, and has now made it count with a lane for Monday night.

Among those missing out were Britain’s Michael Jamieson (1:00.59) and New Zealand’s Glenn Snyders (1:00.22). Britain’s other entrant, Ross Murdoch, also missed the final, but placing 11th in 1:00.07, he could supplant Jamieson on the GB medley relay at the end of the meet.

Full Men’s 100 Breast results here.