Be sure to tune in to the site during finals as we’ll be doing a livecast with Chris Desantis of the Swim Brief and Garrett McCaffrey. Thanks to all who have listened so far!
Men’s 50 freestyle prelims
 As a demonstration of how close this 50 free is, we have a three-way tie for the top seed headed into semifinals from Nathan Adrian, Cesar Cielo, and George Bovell. The first two of those was expected, Bovell was maybe not as much as we haven’t heard a lot from Bovell, who competes for Trinidad & Tobago, in the past few seasons. You will recall that he was the 2004 bronze medalists in the 200 IM. Great to see him making some waves again.
Adam Brown of the UK did very well to finish 4th in 22.08. 5th was another tie, with nice 22.15 swims from Krisztián Takács of Hungary and Stefan Nystrand of Sweden.
There were some huge names left out of this final. France’s Fred Bousquet finished 21st, American Cullen Jones took 2oth, and former Stanford swimmer David Dunford (also of Kenya) and Brent Hayden, who took silver in the 100, tied for 17th. The last two swimmers in were Andrey Grechin of Russia and Roland Schoeman of South Africa.
Women’s 50 fly prelims
Therese Alshammar is in her familiar position as she’s clearly the best in the world in this women’s 50 fly, and on a smooth-curve perspective has been for quite some time. She put up a 25.68 in the final heat, at a point where nobody else yet been under 26, to lead the way into the semifinal. Chasing Alshammar in that final heat were Jeanette Ottesen from Denmark in 25.88, followed by Dana Vollmer in 25.98.
The top finisher from the first 6 heats (out of 7)Â was China’s Ying Lu in 26.16, followed closely by Sweden’s Sara Sjoestrom in 26.17. Rounding out the top 8 were Christine Magnuson of the USA (26.27), Inge Dekker of the Netherlands (26.32), and a tie between Japan’s Yuka Kato and Melanie Henique of France in 26.37.
No real big surprises missing the final, other than Australia’s Yolane Kukla. The 15-year old was 27.2 for 24th, but she’ll have many more opportunities at World Championship meets in her career.
Women’s 50 fly prelims results.
Men’s 100 fly prelims
Tyler McGill began to build his street-cred on the international level (though American readers are probably quite familiar with his collegiate exploits) by taking the top seed in the 100 fly prelims in a 51.76. That’s only a tenth off of his Nationals mark from last year, which is impressive as many of the recent-collegiate grads haven’t looked as strong in their first big World Championship meet.
Japan’s Takuro Fujii was another heat winner in 51.82, just ahead of Geoff Huegill of Australia, 50m bronze medalist, in 51.83.
Michael Phelps, who is the fastest seed in this race, took 5th in 51.95, but looked very solid as the fastest swimmer on the backhalf in a closing 27.19 split. That indicates that he really just sort of swam this race at an even tempo, and worked a bit on his closing speed. Overall, a quality prelims swim from him.
Phelps’ arch-nemesis of 2008 and 2009 Milorad Cavic of Serbia (you’ll remember that he’s the one over whom Phelps had a miracle finish at the 2008 Olympics that even in the slowest of motions was indiscernible as to who was the victor) finished 18th and didn’t make the final. He’s had a few injury problems over the past few year, but looked pretty good in the early going in 2011. His time was 52.67.
Cavic was the only real surprise to miss the semifinal. South Africa’s Chad le Clos swam a nice 52.54 (he’s normally a 200 fly guy). That’s a career-best for him, as he’s searching to expand his repertoire as he heads into his 20’s.
Full men’s 100 fly prelims results.
Women’s 200 backstroke prelims
After Missy Franklin dropped a bomb in yesterday’s 800 free relay with a 1:55.05 200 free, many were waiting to see what she could do in this 200 backstroke, and she certainly didn’t disappoint. She finished prelims with the top overall seed in this race in 2:07.71, which is a career-best time for her. For those curious, the USA Swimming National Age Group Record in 15-16 for this race is 2:06.39 by Elizabeth Beisel; 2:06.09 is the overall American Record held by Margaret Hoelzer. She looks like she’s in great position to chase down both of those.
Beisel also had a great swim ahead of Franklin’s swim to swim a 2:08.40 for the 3rd seed. In between the Americans is Ukraine’s Daryna Zevina at 2:08.35, which means the top 3 seeds in the semifinals will all be teenagers, which continues a youthward trend in the backstrokes.
Australia’s Belinda Hocking and Meagan Nay tied for 4th in 2:08.50. Anastasia Zueva, who took silver in the 100 and gold in the 50, missed this final in 17th place (2::11.23). She’s been moving towards the shorter backstrokes, but this was still a big surprise for her to not final as the defending silver medalist.
Full women’s 200 back prelims results.
Men’s 800 free relay prelims
The USA took the top seed in this preliminary heat in 7:08.84, and with the gold and silver medalists yet to be added to this relay, they seem to be quite certain for gold. The American splits were Dave Walters (1:48.01), Conor Dwyer (1:47.31), Ricky Berens (1:46.99), and Peter Vanderkaay (1:46.63). Don’t expect any finals controversies in this ones, as the prelims results supported the times coming in. The American final grouping should be Michael Phelps, Ricky Berens, Peter Vanderkaay, and Ryan Lochte.
The big shock was the Russians, who were a huge medal favorite, missing the final in 10th place to miss the final by 8-tenths.
Nobody aside from the Americans looked two good in prelims. Japan swam a 7:10.46 for 2nd, but used their top swimmers in the prelims. China was 6th in a 4:12.19, and they looked very good through two legs before fading on the back half of the relay. With those two good legs, however, they should get a big boost when Sun Yang is added to this relay in finals, and are a good chance to medal. Other than that, it’s a bit open for another medalist, with Australia (2:11.80) in 4th looking to have the best hopes. France was 3rd in 7:11.60, but don’t have much in the way of substitutions.
Full men’s 800 free relay prelims results. Â
Women’s 800 freestyle prelims
This is a distance event, where the top 8 go straight to finals, and so far in this meet the prelims of these types of races have been very fast and very tight. The top seeds went predictably to Great Britain’s Rebecca Adlington (8:22.27) and Denmark’s Lotte Friis (8:23.07), though both will have huge drops in finals so we didn’t learn much there.
Chloe Sutton of the USA looks to finally be coming into some good swimming after disappointing finishes in the 400 and 1500. Her mother, via facebook, offered up a good explanation for her early struggles in this meet, where she failed to final in either race:
Even for Pan Pacs last year she didn’t fully taper due to the 10k coming after the pool. This was her first full taper ever and I believe it will be a learning experience. She just hasn’t felt strong. She has been very frustrated but is ready and is feeling stronger for the 800- Thanks and please keep her in your prayers. She has such a good, sweet soul. NEGU
That makes a lot of sense, that Sutton probably has never had a real taper in her life. She seems to finally be settling into a groove though and touched in 8:27.72. She was 8:24’s at both Nationals and Pan Pac’s last year, so that’s probably the hurdle she’ll be chasing in finals.
Kate Ziegler also did well to finish 4th in 8:28.28, though it was quite dicey. The 4th through 9th place finishers in this race were separated by only 8-tenths. The swimmer on the bad end of the outcome was Chile’s Kristel Kobrich, who finished .01 behind Wendy Trott’s 8:28.75 to just miss the final. She really has a knack for close finishes in prelims swims, as in 2009 she tied for exactly 8th in this race. (In the 800, ten-lane pools allow FINA to avoid swimoffs, and both swimmers advance). But here she was not so lucky.
The other finalists, all in 8:28’s, are Katie Goldman, Boglarka Kapas, and Lauren Boyle.
Aswim-
I think she does like disco music. 🙂
JAG,
whats happening with Kukla? She’s gone from bad to worse as the meet continues. Her best swim was actually 100 free prelims.
I thought she was a contender for a minor medal in 50 fly.
her 27.2 was indeed shocking.
Is it just her age finally showing cracks at the biggest meet?
Maitenant Laure a deux bebes . Le grand bebe a besoin de bum creme.
John26.
Freddy put up un petit tantrum about Hawke not being assigned his personal coach by the French fed.
Freddie est un grand bebe.
Bousquet out is a big surprise.Is Hawke in Shangai?
I feel like swimmers are putting less and less effort in their prelim swims as the week goes on. Today, I feel, is the first major prelim where there were HUGE exits. Russia… didnt make the final!? They’re having a pretty crappy meet to put it gently.
“no real surprises missing the 50 fly final” – a 25.8 flyer doing 27.2 . Kukla did not look happy going out for the 100 semi .
Tough for a 15 year old . I hope it is just her age & they are not killing her in that program . She looked fine 3 weeks ago .
Someone who does a 28 for a 50 fly at 12 less than a year after taking up training is not your average kid either. She looks so much weaker than even 3 weeks ago.
Send her home to be with family & friends not suffering over there.
Good call, missed her down there.