Day 3 prelims at the 2012 London Olympics will be a fairly light session, which just a trio of races. Among those will be Michael Phelps and his return to individual action in the men’s 200 fly. This will be his second shot at history of becoming the first man to three-peat an Olympic event.
We’ll also see 400 IM World Record breaker Shiwen Ye step to the plate in the 200, which has been her better event in the past.
Full PDF results, with splits, here.
Live streaming video available here (US only).
Women’s 200 Free Prelims
Out of the primary medal contenders in this 200 free prelim, only Federica Pellegrini of Italy (the top seed in 1:57.16) and Allison Schmitt of the United States (2nd in 1:57.33) really commanded their races.
Pellegrini closed on her heat, though not quite in a true Pellegrini close but still comfortable, while Schmitt pushed the pace early and was able to back off to save some energy after Sunday’s 400 freestyles; many of the other swimmers almost seemed like they didn’t put quite enough energy into the early lengths of this race and had to strain on the last 50 meters to feel comfortable about advancement.
The United States’ Missy Franklin will be the 3rd seed, swimming next to Pellegrini, with a 1:57.62, followed by a 4th-place tie between Veronika Popova of Russia and Melanie Costa-Schmid of Spain in 1:57.79. Costa-Schmid had a very good finish to grab a high seed and come close to a National Record.
Canada’s Barbara Jardin (1:57.92), Caitlin McClatchey from Britain (1:58.03), and Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom (also 1:58.03) round out the top 8.
The two Australians, 400 champion Camille Muffat, former European Junior champ Silke Lippok of Germany, and defending silver medalist Sara Isakovic of Slovenia all were safely through.
The Canadian women are shaping up for a very good 800 free relay: a relay they are expected to final in. Barbara Jardin qualified 6th for the semi’s here in 1:57.9, and Sam Cheverton pushed through as well 9th in 1:58.11. Combined with Brittany MacLean, who had a very good 400, and probably Julia Wilkinson, that could be a top 5-or-6 relay.
Among bigger names who missed are Romania’s Camelia Potec. The 2004 gold medalist in this race had qualified for the last three Olympic finals in the event. Also of note, Bulgaria’s Nina Rangelova broke her own National Record with a 1:59.21; she swims collegiately in the United States for SMU.
There were two big scratches in this race: Femke Heemskerk from the Netherlands, and Grainne Murphy from Ireland.
Men’s 200 Fly
A very fast third heat, the first of the fast circle-seeded heats left a few swimmers nervous early, but that tapered off as all of the contenders were safely through to the semi-finals.
Serbia’s 18-year old Velimir Stjepanovich, trained in the UAE, set the tone early with a 1:54.99: easily a new National Record and the third overall seed.
It was Austria’s Dink Jukic who walked away with the top seed in 1:54.79. Though that’s a very good prelims time, he seemed a bit too excited about winning the final heat, though he did beat Michael Phelps, as it was only a prelims swim. He did fly home in a 59.2 though, so that was clearly enough motivation for him. The two will be lined up next to each other again tonight in heat 2, so Jukic will look to feed off of that again.
Tyler Clary was just behind the Austrian in that heat in 1:54.96, and Phelps took the 5th seed in 1:55.53.
South African Chad le Clos rounded out the top 5 seeds with a 1:55.23. This race is showing a lot more depth than we saw at the World Championships last year, so we could see a lot of swimmers forced to push down into the 1:54 to be comfortable to make the finals.
Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda, the Worlds silver medalist, was 8th in 1:55.81, China’s Wu Peng was just behind in 1:55.88, and Australia’s Nick D’Arcy was 12th in 1:56.25. The two Hungarians, Laszlo Cseh and Bence Biczo, were also safely into the semi’s, though both really need to finish better in the next round.
The most surprising miss was Brazil’s Kaio Almeida, who came into this meet ranked 9th in the world, but finished tied for 17th with the UK’s Joe Roebuck in 1:56.99. After Thiago Pereira got the Brazilians off to a great start in the 400 IM, they’ve struggled since.
Portugal’s Pedro Oliveira had a nice swim of 1:58.45 for 22nd, and Peru’s Mauricio Fiol Villanueva had a valiant swim out of lane 8 to swim a 1:59.02. That’s a new National Record.
Women’s 200 IM
If China’s Shiwen Ye leads the final of this 200 IM at the final turn, like she did in her preliminary heat, the rest of the field is in trouble. The 16-year old who set a World Record already in the 400 IM touched in a very controlled 2:08.90, which matches her World Championship title from last year as the all-time textile best swim. She closed in only a 30.73, something we know she can outdo by at least a second.
Behind her in the same heat was Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry in 2:10.51: her best time in two years. The defending silver-medalist had a flare-up of her recurring kneecap issues earlier this year, but after returning to the United States to train with one-time college coach Kim Brackin seems to have righted the ship that left her without a finals swim at Worlds. Despite the knee issues, she actually had a very good breaststroke race to pick up the second seed.
The United States’ Caitlin Leverenz will be the 3rd seed in 2:10.63. That’s already just half-a-second off of where she was at Trials, with obvious ground to be made up on her backstroke leg that has improved so much in the last year. Just behind her was her old college rival Katinka Hosszu of Hungary (2:10.68), the only swimmer to go under 30 seconds in the freestyle 50. Alicia Coutts of Australia was the other swimmer on a 2:10.
Spain’s Mireia Belmonte-Garcia and American Ariana Kukors were both at 2:11-highs, and the times continued to drop off from there. Defending Olympic champion Stephanie Rice was 9th in a 2:12.2, after being very upset with her 400 IM.
Britain’s Hannah Miley made the final, as did quite a few underdogs: Amit Ivri of Israel, Theresa Michalak of Germany, and Joanna Maranhao of Brazil as the 16th qualifier in 2:14.40. The door was opened for some new names after a really slow set of morning heats.
Sweden’s Stina Gardell, after having to push so hard to meet her country’s lofty qualification standards, hasn’t been able to repeat her taper. She was only 20th and two seconds from her season best. Canada’s Erica Morningstar was quite far off of what she went at Trials as well with a 2:14.32.
The major difference with Ye is that she’s at least 1.5 seconds faster on the first 3 legs than she was last year, and appears to have become even stronger on the freestyle (closing the free leg in the 400 as strong as 200 from ’11).
But I must say that the major development for her was in the first 3 legs. That type of improvement in one year is unheard of, but she was pretty weak in them so stranger things have happened.
This morning’s race– she closed in a pedestrian 30.7, As far as we know, she can close the race almost 2 seconds faster than that, which would automatically put her in the 2:06s. This is just… Read more »
…unless she can close in a 27 like Lochte.
Typo – Last sentence … she is going to be a very tired swimmer.
I’m beginning to think that Bobo GiGi was right about Missy taking on too many events. She should have focused on the backstrokes and kept her freestyles for the relays. Any chance that she had of beating Emily in the 100 back tonight with the 200 free semi right ahead of it, an event she may not even medal in, will be extremely difficult. Also, by the time she gets to the 200 back and the medley relay, she is going to be a very tired.
Speaking of bobo gigi, he hasnt commented all olympics… I miss him.
Yeah, he said goodbye before the Olympics! Not sure where he is….said he’d be back after the Games. Maybe he’s in London sans internet?
Leverenz’ start and walls are terrible. Her start put her almost 1/2 a body length behind. And her fly/back turn was was slow. Her speed on the surface is fine but she could drop significant time. Kinda surprising for an NCAA short course swimmer.
Exactly. Did you catch that Leverenz didn’t streamline off any of her walls this morning (including the start)?
Anyone know where you can view the post race press confrences. I’ve been looking everywhere.
Does anyone give Franklin a chance of beating Seebohm in the 100 back final? Shes coming off a 200 free semi 20mins earlier. Will be very tough.
In othr news Jukic came home in 59.1 in that 200 Fly. Very quick
Jukic came home in 59.24
I don’t see Franklin taking down Seebohm, but her only chance is to take it out fast–something she has not done thus far.
I think even fully rested a full second will be too much for missy to make up and given she’s coming off a 200Fr semi I think she has no chance for gold unless Seebom makes a huge mistake.
Honestly, after Seebohm went 59.21 with the year she had last year, I penciled in for first in 2012. The next thing that happened was Franklin’s coming out party, which made me think a 58mid from her was very realistic– displacing Seebohm from the #1 spot.
I still felt that Seebohm had something very special with all though 59.3 inseason swims, but her time at Aussie Trials wasn’t particularly motivating.
At the moment, Seebohm is probably going into the finals with a comparable, albeit slightly smaller lead over the rest of the world as Vollmer in the 100fly. Check the seed times if you want to prove it to yourself. The fact that Franklin likely needs to swim at least… Read more »
Good initial showing by Clary and Leverenz! I hope team USA can keep the ball rolling; they’re currently 8/8 medals per events completed!
I am memerized by Ye Shiwen
Such a breathtaking display of sublime swim.
So dominant is she in the IM, that makes trivial of Missy’s 200 back dominant seems trivial.
I always believed that the w200IM WR would not be broken for decades, but now I have to believe Ye will take it, if not here in London, then next year.
She is truly the kind of swimmer that only arrives once in a generation, a la Meagher, Egerszegi and Evans.