Women’s 100 backstroke prelims
And the first big axe fell in this 100 backstroke as Britain’s Gemma Spofforth, who is the defending World Champion and World Record holder, placed 7th in the first of the seeded heats and placed 23rd overall in the prelims in 1:01.89. Spofforth really hasn’t looked great the past few months, so perhaps this wasn’t much of a surprise. Reports are, however, that she was suffering from food poisoning over the weekend, which surely sapped much of her strength.
Overall, the top four seeds were all under one minute. The USA’s Natalie Coughlin took a familiar position as the top seed in 59.73, followed by a huge shock in Canada’s Sinead Russell in 59.80. Russell and her teammate Julia Wilkinson (1:00.82) both made the semi-final, but Russell was a surprise as the swimmer to break a minute. With that swim, she snatched a two-year old National Record and became the first Canadian woman under a minute. If a Canadian was going to break a minute, the expectation would be that it would be Wilkinson, but an awesome swim by Russell.
Rounding out those under a minute were Australia’s Emily Seebohm (59.87) and Japan’s Aya Terakawa (59.95). Seebohm has been hospitalized many times this season with various health issues, including a bout of swine flu that kept her out of all races but this one at Australian Nationals. Much like her fellow Aussie youngster James Magnussen on day 1, however, the Seebohm’s youth has allowed her to bounce back very quickly and still swim quite well.
Amongst the top 8 were two Americans (1. Coughlin, 5. Seebohm), two Japanese (4. Terakawa, 7. Sakai), two Aussies (3. Seebohm, 6. Hocking), and Britain’s Elizabeth Simmonds in 8th.
Full women’s 100 back prelims results.
Men’s 200 free prelims
Ryan Lochte, swimming in a heat between Michael Phelps and the Netherlands’ Sebastian Verschuren, hung back through 150 meters. Verschuren took the race out hard and tried to force the pace, but Lochte and Phelps wouldn’t bite. Coming off of the final wall of the race, while Verschuren came up early and started digging hard, Lochte and Phelps used their infamous “American Dolphins” to catapult themselves into a final drive. Lochte seemed to make up ground on the leader by about a foot on each stroke, and eventually would overtake him to earn the top seed in 1:46.34. That time is more impressive when you consider that Lochte stopped swimming and basically lunged for the wall about 5-meters out.
Verschuren’s swim was quite impressive though. Racing against the two best swimmers in the world, he showed no fear in taking the initiative in the race. His swim is what led to that 7th heat being so much faster than any of the other two seeded heats, and he touched in 1:46.53. Phelps will be seeded 5th in 1:46.98.
Defending World Champ Paul Biedermann of Germany, who is the World Record holder, locked horns with Korea’s Park Tae Hwan in the final heat, and the race led to a 3rd seed in 1:46.56 for Biedermann and a 4th seed from Park in 1:46.63. Park didn’t mess around in this prelim, like he did in the morning heats of the 400 free, and was comfortably through.
The first seeded heat, heat 6, was well slower than the other two, so it was hard to gauge their times against the rest of the field. France’s Yannick Agnel took that heat in 1:47.11, followed by Britain’s Robbie Renwick, who will be seeded 11th in the semi-final. Swiss swimmer Dominik Meichtry, who trains at USC in the United States, is the 7th seed in 1:47.38.
Top 5 qualifiers are Lochte, Verschuren, Biedermann, Park, and Phelps.
Women’s 100 breaststroke prelims
In this women’s 100 breaststroke, the main contenders for the medals are so far ahead of the competition that most were really soft through the prelim race, knowing that they’d easily make the semi-final without expending much more than a practice-level effort.
Rebecca Soni, however, was not of that opinion. Swimming out of the last heat, with the advantage of seeing nobody under 1:07 ahead of her, Soni went out hard and rocketed off a 1:05.54. That should put some fear into her competition. Jiping Li of China, who shared a heat with Soni, took the second seed in 1:07.10; though that was probably more the effect of the uncertainty of swimming behind the woman who is well ahead of the rest of the field.
The other big contenders were all safely through. Australia’s Leisel Jones sits 6th in 1:07.72, Russia’s Yuliya Efimova takes 9th in 1:07.81, and another Aussie Leiston Pickett is 11th in 1:08.06. The USA’s Amanda Beard also snuck into the final, thanks to a nice last 15 meters, at 14th in 1:08.51.
An exciting swim came from former Minnesota Golden Gopher Jillian Tyler, who competes for Canada now. She won the 7th heat in 1:07.67 to take the 5th seed overall.
Top 5 after the prelims – Soni 1:05.54, Ji 1:07.10, Poewe (Germany) 1:07.38, Suzuki (Japan) 1:07.39, and Tyler 1:07.67.
Full women’s 100 breaststroke prelims results.
Men’s 100 backstroke
The French male backstrokers made a real statement in this prelim of the 100 backstroke to take the top two seeds. France’s Camille Lacourt took the top seed in 53.30, followed by Jeremy Stravius in 53.34. Lacourt looked incredibly relaxed in his heat, and was being out-rated by just about all of his competitors, but still blew them away.
For the Americans, David Plummer emerged with the 3rd seed in 53.68, whereas Nick Thoman, who probably had more expectations put on him, qualified 10th in 54.13. There’s still two-more rounds to go, and the final will likely decide which swimmer gets a relay spot, but Plummer could be rightfully called the underdog in that race-within-the-race, and yet he’ll take a middle lane in the semi-finals. Thoman, however, likes to build by round, moreso than most, and should definitely be a lot faster in the semifinals.
Liam Tancock of Great Britain finished 4th in 53.84, followed by a great long course swim for short course specialist Stanislav Donets in 53.85. Australia’s Ben Treffers had a great morning swim to place 6th in 53.89, where he tied with New Zealand’s Gareth Kean.
Kean is another shocking swim for a New Zealander, following Lauren Boyle in the 400 free and Glenn Snyders in the 100 breaststroke. Kean’s prelims swim just missed (by .04 seconds) a National Record, held by Daniel Bell who finished well back. Ryosuke Irie, who sits 2nd in the World Rankings, qualified 10th in 53.99.
Full men’s 100 backstroke results.
Women’s 1500 freestyle prelims
China’s Yiwen Shao, a young 16-year old, did what young swimmers do. She went out in this 1500 with absolutely no fear. She took a two body-length lead in her heat, and though Chile’s Kristel Kobrich did close the gap and take the lead with about 50 meters to go, Shao simply put her foot to the floor on the final 50 meters, at under 30 seconds, to blow away the field and touch in 16:01.72. That temporarily stood as her best time of the season, and crushes the Chinese National Record by about 8 seconds over Li Xuanxu from Chinese Nationals this year.
Kobrich, perhaps satisfied that she had shown what she needed to show, didn’t put the same power into the final 50, which was a smart, veteran move on her part. She ended up with the 4th seed in 16:03.50 and conserved energy for the final.
In the last heat, though Lotte Friis did not go out as aggressively as Shao, she didn’t drop off as badly around the 1200 meter mark and bettered her younger competitor with a time of 16:00.47. Friis is the defending World Champion in the 800, and the defending silver medalist in this 1500.
The USA’s Kate Ziegler looked great in the prelims as well to take the 3rd seed in 16:02.53. That stands as the best time she’s swum since setting the World Record, in textile, in June of 2007. It’s great to see Ziegler finally getting back into her groove after a few tumultuous years.
Former Georgia star Wendy Trott, who is a three-time NCAA Champion in the equivalent 1650, took 5th in 16:05.63 for South Africa. That’s a National Record for her: breaking her own mark from 2009 by three seconds. The final two qualifiers were Open Water participants Melissa Gorman and Erika Villaecija-Garcia. Gorman was the 5k champ last week.
In a serious case of “first-heat” syndrome, none of the swimmers from heat 2 (which was the first “seeded” heat with contenders entered) qualified for the final. The highest finisher there was young Irish swimmer Grainne Murphy in 16:14.81. She was well out ahead of her heat, and without anybody to pace off of was more than two seconds out of the final. American Chloe Sutton, swimming in the last heat, placed 9th to miss the final as well.
These women will have about 30 hours to recover, as the final won’t be swum until Day 3.
Full 1500 results available here.
What We Learned About Relays
We didn’t learn much about the relays yet in these prelims – probably not as much as we might have thought at least – based on how the top swimmers performed. The men’s 100 backstroke probably told us the most, as Australia’s Ben Treffers showed that he won’t give much ground on the medley relay. A more under-the-radar, but also important, swim came from the Netherlands’ Nick Driebergen, who swam a 54.30 to semi-final. That Dutch medley is going to be sneaky good, but will depend a lot on a good swim from Driebergen, and every round he qualifies for here will increase his confidence going towards that relay.
In the women’s 100 backstroke, Elizabeth Pelton looks like a viable option to lead off the American prelims medley relay, thanks to her 1:00.19 to take the 5th seed. That should allow the Americans to give Natalie Coughlin some rest for finals. With Spofforth missing the semi-final after some reported stomach issues, Elizabeth Simmonds probably takes over the British opening leg.
Finals to begin at 6 PM Shanghai time, or 6 AM US Eastern Time.
I dont know about you guys, but i expecting and was hoping for Sutton to do better. She still dropped time, but i thought for sure she wouldve been able to hang with Ziegler. She was a bit off in the 400 as well, i wonder whats up.
Nice to see Kate Ziegler seeming to continue to return to form. Be interesting to see if she’s got more in the tank for the final.
beachmouse – Was hard to tell from the final. Friis appeared to leave something. Yiwen looked about spent, though she did have that monster last leg. Kobrich also looks like she’s got sub-16 in her easily.
Interesting.
From an Aust perspective – not looking good for Denis Cotterill for Fraser Holmes to be swimming so poorly. The unspoken issue is that he is concentrating on the chinese & either neglecting his own squad or over training them to keep up with the Chinese.
Yes Virginia -there is over-training & Denis’s squad has a long list of casualties.
My own take is that we should just forego 400m & further as it is detrimental to the young men’s life chances. Their time would be better spent studying /working & taking advantage of a booming economy.
Aust ought concentrate on sprints & 200 –
ps give up the 400 im also . It is too embarrassing.
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