The Morning of day 4 at the FINA Youth World Championships in Lima, Peru were pretty quiet. There were some good swims, but for the first time of the meet there were no new meet records. This is a bit of the calm before the storm, with lots of great finals lined up for tonight.
The Ukraine’s Daryna Zevina, already with a 100 backstroke title under her belt, took the top seed in the girls 50 back in 29.00. France’s Camille Gheorghiu was 2nd in 29.19, followed by Hazal Sarikaya of Turkey in 29.22, which ties her own National Record. Both Americans, Olivia Smoliga (29.35) and Kylie Stewart (30.00) also advanced.
In the boys 50 fly, Croatia’s Mihael Vukic took top honors in 24.37, followed by the USA’s Maclin Davis (the 100 fly champion) in 24.45. Erich Peske also made it through in 25.23, as did Singapore’s Joseph Schooling in 24.95.
Japan’s Aya Takano (4:12.71) and the USA’s Gillian Ryan (4:13.28) have set up a great finals battle in the women’s 400 free as the top two seeds. Also don’t sleep on Canada’s Brittany MacLean, who swam very well in her off events earlier in the meet but is now entering her primary events of the 200 and 400 freestyles. She’s the 5th seed in 4:15.23. Chelsea Chenault of the USA and Mikkayla Sheridan of Australia, the top two seeds coming into the meet, will also be lurking in the final.
Prelims of the 200 breaststroke were tightly-packed, though a bit on the slow side, with the two Ukrainians Oleksiy Rozhkov (2:15.28) and Maksym Shembrev (2:15.34) taking the top two seeds. Every swimmer in this final is capable of going under 2:15, and a faster final should leave about a 2:13.0 as the maximum it will take to medal.
Spain’s Beatriz Gomez Cortes took top honors in the girls 200 IM in 2:15.20, which is a solid prelims time. Japan’s Emu Higuchi was 2nd in 2:15.95, followed by Allison Brown of the United States in 2:16.13.
The American quartet of Alex Cohen, Allen Browning, Ryan Murphy, and Seth Stubblefield were the fastest early in the boys 800 free relay in a time of 7:27.40. Canada was 2nd in 7:29.40, followed by Poland. TImes in the finals should be much faster.
Full meet results available here. Finals start tonight at 6PM local time, which is equivalent to American Central time.
