USA Swimming has published start lists for day 2’s evening sessions at the 2015 Arena Pro Swim Series at Charlotte meet, and the biggest news is that Ryan Lochte has scratched out of the A-Final of the men’s 400 IM.
Lochte had a monster prelims session to qualify for three A-Finals (200 free, 100 fly, 400 IM), but chose to pare that down to just the first two races in the evening session. The 400 IM would’ve been his last individual race of the day.
He was one of three swimmers to scratch an A-Final on Friday. Also skipping out on races will be Brazilian Thiago Pereira, who is skipping the 100 fly A-Final, and Eugene Godsoe, who was the 3rd qualifier in the men’s 50 backstroke.
Best Race of Finals
Relays aren’t usually given much focus at the Pro Swim Series, but in Charlotte, they’ll be center-stage on night one. Italy, Brazil, and SwimMAC Carolina will each swim loaded 400 free relays, and while the team from SwimMAC and Brazil haven’t announced their lineups, Italy and Brazil are expected to have relays pretty similar to the ones they’ll swim in Kazan at the World Championships this summer.
The Canadians will also have close to their A relay going in the 2nd heat, making this one of the better relay events we’ve ever seen at the Pro Swim Series.
Other Noteworthy Scratches/Non-Scratches
- Cesar Cielo swam the 100 fly with a ripped suit in prelims, and still managed to qualify for the B-Final. He won’t swim in the evening session, with Brazil’s big test of their 400 free relay coming at the end of the session.
- Michael Phelps has held both of his entries into finals, and will swim in the B-Final of the 200 free (lane 7, 6:08 PM local time), and in the A-Final of the 100 fly (lane 6, 6:49PM local time). He and Lochte were set to be side-by-side in the 100 fly, but Pereira’s scratch pushed them to opposite ends of the pool, with top-seeded Tom Shields halfway in between them.
- Jamaican World Champion Alia Atkinson scratched the D-Final of the 50 backstroke and the C Final of the 100 fly to focus on her best event, the 100 breaststroke. She was the 5th qualifier through prelims in the morning, and will be chasing SwimMAC’s Katie Meili, who swam a lifetime best of 1:06.79 in prelims.
- Cullen Jones scratched out of the C-Final of the 100 fly, but could be a factor in the SwimMAC 400 free relay.
