2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 13 to Sunday, December 18, 2022
- Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Melbourne, Australia
- SCM (25m)
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- Day 2 Prelim Heat Sheet
After sitting out of the women’s 400 free on the opening day of the 2022 Short Course World Championships in Melbourne, China’s Li Bingjie has scratched the timed final of the 800 free on Day 2.
Li, who was coming into the meet as the defending champion in both events, dropped the 400 free from her program on Tuesday after reportedly coming down with an illness upon arrival in Melbourne.
The 20-year-old Chinese star is now out of the 800 free, meaning she’ll relinquish both of the world titles she came in as the heavy favorite to defend given the form she showed coming in. That included shattering the world record in the 400 free (3:51.30) in October, and she was also the top seed in the 800 free, having broken the Championship Record last year in Abu Dhabi in a time of 8:02.90.
The women’s 800 freestyle is being contested as a timed final at SC Worlds this year, with the fastest-seeded heat scheduled for Wednesday night’s finals session with two early heats in the prelims.
That is a change from last year, likely due to the addition of the women’s 1500 free (and men’s 800 free) to the program.
In Li’s absence, Australian Lani Pallister, who won gold in the 400 free on Tuesday, is now the top seed in the 800 free, while American Jillian Cox has been bumped up into the finals heat after coming in seeded 10th.
In addition to Li, Italian Simona Quadarella, the 2021 bronze medalist, dropped out of the meet earlier this week as the #3 seed.
Li is not the only member of the Chinese team to have scratched out of certain events:
#Melbourne2022
There are some scratches according to the start lists:
Yang Junxuan 100 and 200 free
Yu Yiting 100,200 and 400 IM
Liu Zhitong 200 fly
Tang Qianting 100 IM
Pan Zhanle 50 free— Chinese Swimming News and Results (@CHNswim_fan) December 11, 2022
For Wednesday morning’s prelim session, there have been no other scratches from swimmers seeded in the top 24.
With Quadarella and Bingjie out, this definitely leaves room for the Americans (Cox and Smith) to possibly grab silver/bronze behind Pallister??
Political game? Or honest sickness?
I bet the former. Chess in the pool.
You guys are STUPID! She contracted COVID!
Probably honest ilness – remember China has been under lockdown more than other nations, and seems to be just relaxing – and in the US we are seeing outbreaks of RSV and flu because people were isolated for such an extended period that these other diseases didn’t have the chance to slowly work thru the poplace and build herd immunity – coming out of lockdown, the Chinese are probably experiencing a similar sudden exposure to diseases that they lack immunity to thus a lot of people getting sick at the same time.
That’s not why respiratory viruses are out of control this year. It’s much more likely immune damage in kids who have had Covid.
So much for breaking the world record in the women’s 800 meter freestyle (SCM).
I thought she was going for the mens lcm wr
We have to keep trolling him until he stops