Kliment Kolesnikov Scratches 200 IM Final on Day 1 at SC Worlds

2018 FINA Short Course World Championships

• Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
• Hangzhou, China
• Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
• SCM (25m)
• Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00 am ET
• U.S. Live Stream (Finals – First Three Days)
• U.S. Live Stream (Prelims, Finals Last Day)
• FINA TV Livestream (All Sessions)

^{* the final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET}

Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov has opted out of the 200 IM final on Day One of the 2018 FINA Short Course World Championships in Hangzhou, China. Kolesnikov qualified 7th for finals after morning heats, swimming a 1:53.63. He had come in to the meet seeded 4th with 1:53.36. Kolesnikov also swam the 100 back in the morning, and qualified 11th for tonight’s semi-final race. He was entered with the top time in the event, a 48.90 that he swam last December when he broke the World Record in Saint Petersburg. (Kolesnikov’s 48.90 is still the World Junior Record but China’s Xu Jiayu estabalished a new World Record in the event last month with 48.88.) His morning swim in the backstroke was 1.86 seconds off his best time, and he’ll have a lot of competition to make it through to the final in the 100 back. Finishing ahead of him in heats were Brazil’s Guilherme Guido (49.57), USA’s Ryan Murphy (49.72), Xu (49.83), USA’s Matt Grevers (50.12), Roumania’s Robert Glinta (50.22), Mitchell Larkin of Australia (50.27), Christian Diener of Germany (50.28), Simone Sabbioni of Italy (50.62), Poland’s Radoslaw Kawecki (50.73), and Ryosuke Irie of Japan (50.73).

Katinka Hosszu of Hungary will swim in two events in Tuesday’s finals session: she put up the top qualifying time in the 400 IM (4:23.59) and made it through to semi-finals of the 100 back with the 3rd-fastest time (57.09).