Four sets of medals were handed out on the first day of competition at the FINA Youth World Championships in Lima, Peru. There were also four semi-finals contested, in 50-and-100 meter races, whose finals will come tomorrow evening. The Japanese started the meet off by sweeping the first night’s individual events, and we saw a ton of Meet Records go down as well.
Finals
Girls 400 IM
Japan’s Miyu Otsuka started things out on the ladies side with a dazzling display in the women’s 400 IM. She took the title in 4:40.98, which is far from her season-best time but was good enough to break her own Championship Record set in prelims by more than two seconds. In all, she lowered Dagny Knutson’s 2008 record that stood at 4:43.49 by 2.51 seconds, which is a huge margin.
Coming out of the morning prelim, it appeared as though Otsuka pulled back on the final 100, and she reversed that in the final. Her first three legs (including the impressive breaststroke) were pretty similar, but her freestyle lap was a second-and-a-half faster. She still wasn’t very good on the freestyle (1:06.4) and was in fact the slowest in the final. But she was good enough through the first 300 meters that this race wasn’t close.
Italy’s Alessia Pollieri placed 2nd in 3:43.41, which was also under the old record, followed by Spain’s Claudia Dasca in 3:43.53. That’s a career-best time and a Spanish Age Group Record for Dasca.
In the top 5, there were two Spanish swimmers (Dasca and Cristina Garcia in 5th), two Japanese swimmers (Otsuka and Higuchi in 4th), and an Italian, which I think sets a strong early tone for the teams that are really going to excel in this meet, along with the Americans. Speaking of which, the two American finalists finished 6th (Haley Flickinger) and 7th (Rachel Zilinskas).
Boys 400 free
Japan began the meet two-for two thanks to a win in the men’s 400 free from Fumiya Hidaka in 3:50.97. He was one of four swimmers in this final to break the old Meet Record held by Danila Izotov at 3:51.81.
Hidaka had a great closing kick to pull ahead of Canada’s Chad Bobrosky (2nd – 3:51.46) and the USA’s Evan Pinion (3rd – 3:51.47) for the victory. Pinion had a big lead headed into the last 100 meters, but he too was passed by Bobrosky at the last stroke.
The 4th swimmer under the old record was an Italian, but maybe not the one that one might have picked. Gabriele Detti peaked in the right round to touch in 3:51.53 (he too very nearly ran down Pinion in the last 50 meters). That placed him ahead of his younger teammate Andrea D’Ariggo, the 2nd seed after this morning, in 3:53.19. D’Arrigo, however was one of only two finalists (along with the USA’s Reed Malone) who will be eligible for the next edition of this meet in 2013.
Boys 400 free relay
The Americans finally got on the board in the men’s 400 free relay with a gold-medal from the quartet of Matt Ellis, Allen Browning, Kyle Darmody, and Seth Stubblefield. Though Cal commit Stubblefield had the best split on the anchor of 49.63, the separation came from the least-known name of the group: Browning. His 50.49 on the 2nd leg is what really separated the Americans from the silver-medalist Canadians, who were as good-or-better on each of the other three legs of this race.
As for Canada (3:21.68), they got a great anchor from Chad Bobrosky on his 2nd swim of the night in 49.66, but as mentioned above, they were just shy of the Americans on depth, as I mentioned above. The Russians finished 3rd in 3:22.73, with an identical anchor of 49.66 from Dmitry Ermakov.
The Australians were again led off by a blazing time from Camron McEvoy in 49.67, which was off of his meet record swim of 49.54 from prelims, but the rest of the relay combined to put them in a distant 8th-place. It appeared as though anchor Hugo Morris was instructed to cash it in if he entered the water with Australia out of contention, given that he was three seconds slower than in prelims.
Full boys 400 free relay results.
Girls 800 free relay
The Americans swept the relays on day 1, as the girls 800 free relay capped things off by breaking their own Meet Record (set in prelims) in 8:00.33. They subbed in GIllian Ryan (2:00.98) and Lia Neal (1:59.41) from the prelims and it paid off with a huge margin of victory. Neal wasn’t quite as good as she was at Junior Nationals last week in the 200, but broke out very fast and seems to be back in “sprint mode”.
The huge American win overshadowed a bit a phenomenal anchor from Canada’s Brittany MacLean. Her 1:57.05 would have been good enough to put her on any relay at the World Championships, and would have been the 7th-best split at that meet. That’s just a great time for a second-taper meet. As a group, her Canadian relay took silver in 8:04.92.
Australia went for bronze in 8:06.68.
Full girls 800 free relay results.
Semi-Finals
- Italy’s Lisa Fissneider won the girls 50 breaststroke in 31.77, followed by Claire Polit of France and Sarah Haase of the US.
- Italy started the semifinals out in great position, with Fabio Lagueni taking the top seed in the boys 100 back in 55.47. Jacob Pebley and Jack Conger of the United States will join him there as the 2nd and 3rd seeds.
- Akihiro Yamaguchi of Japan won the men’s 100 breaststroke in 1:01.98, which made him the first swimmer sub-1:02 in the history of this meet. Panagiotis Samilidis of Greece almost became the second, with the two seed in 1:02.06. US National SCM high school record holder Nic Fink took the 3rd seed in 1:02.54.
- In the women’s 100 back, the Ukraine’s Daryna Zevina was well ahead of the crowd with a new meet record in 1:00.92. That betters Liz Pelton’s 1:01.41 from 2008. China’s Yuanhui Fu and the US’ Olivia Smoglia are the second and third seeds. Chantal van Landeghem of Canada will also be in this final.
