Olympic Champion Tom Dean No-Shows 200 Free Prelims at SC Worlds

2021 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD Swimming CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, December 16th – Tuesday, December 21st
• Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• SCM (25m)
• Prize Money
• Meet Site
• Psych Sheet
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Live Results
• Day 3 Prelims Results

Tom Dean and Chad le Clos were both no-shows in the men’s 200 free prelims on Friday morning, leaving another rash of empty lanes as we’ve seen throughout the meet so far at the 2021 Short Course World Championships.

Dean is the defending Olympic champion in the event in long course, while Le Clos was the 2014 World Champion and 2016 runner-up in this event in short course.

Le Clos swam in the 100 fly later in the session, where he placed 11th to qualify through to Friday night’s semi-final. The 29-year old South African, who already has 16 career World Short Course Championships medals, earned his first of 2021 on Thursday evening when he took bronze in the 200 fly.

Dean, meanwhile, has struggled to follow-up his Olympic success with short course times. His best time in the 200 free during the ISL season came in the finale two weeks ago, where he swam 1:43.25. That would have been enough to sneak into the semi-final in Abu Dhabi, but probably wouldn’t have been enough to make the final.

Henrik Christiansen of Norway, who is a medal contender later in the meet in the 800 and 1500 free especially, is among the 7 total swimmers who left empty lanes in the 200 free prelims. So too is Glen Jun Wei Lim of Singapore, after the entire Singapore team was pulled from the meet because of at least four positive tests for COVID-19.

In total there were 30 empty lanes in prelims on Friday, including 8 in relays. Among the other recognizable names were Hugo Gonzalez of Spain DNS’ing in the 100 fly, and Barboa Seemanova of Czech Republic DNS’ing in the 100 free as the #7 seed.

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