Day 4 of the 2011 Summer Universiade is in the books with some very exciting swims. After a record-less day 3, things got back on track with two marks going down and two men doubling up on gold medals.
Women’s 100 fly
China’s Ling Yu scored her second gold medal in as many butterfly races in this meet when she took home the crown in the women’s 100 in 57.86. While that’s not her best time of the year (she took bronze at Worlds), it was good enough to break the two-year old meet record of 58.24 held by Hannah Wilson of Hong Kong, who is a former Cal Bear. Yu’s win gives China their 4th gold medal of the meet, after not scoring any in 2009.
Japan’s IM specialist Tomoyo Fukuda took the silver, well back, in 59.08. Australia’s Alice Mills took 3rd in 59.11, which is her best time since 2008. The United States’ Lyndsay DePaul, who was the top seed coming out of prelims, touched 4th in 59.17. That mark, along with her 59.01 from prelims are the two best times of her season.
Men’s 100 fly
For those who are worried about the state of American butterflying after Phelps’ retirement, see this race to assuage your concerns. Two 20-year old American Collegians topped the podium in the men’s 100 fly, with Ohio State’s Tim Phillips (52.06) topping Cal’s Tom Shields (52.62) for the gold. For Phillips, that wasn’t close to his best time of the season, but Shields’ swim ranks him 25th in the world. Though at the NCAA level, Shields is the more dominant of the pair, in long course Phillips has a clear advantage, which is why it makes sense that he’s taking the 2011 collegiate season off to train for the Olympics.
The Americans now hold 8 (almost exactly one-third) of the top 25 butterfliers in the world.
Poland’s Pawel Korzeniowski took his first medal of the meet in this race by touching 3rd in 52.96. Korzeniowski was probably hoping for a better overall meet performance, given that he won the 200 in 2008, but this 100 time specifically was a good one for him.
In Japan’s never-ending quest to find a solution to their 400 medley relay, Masayuki Kishida took 4th in 52.98, which is not his best time of the season, nor is it close to being good enough to get them on the podium in London. In 5th and 6th were two swimmers with American ties. Henrique Martins of Brazil (5th – 53.27) was briefly committed to the Arizona Wildcats, though he never ended up swimming for them collegiately, and Clement Lefert (6th – 53.28) is a USC Trojan collegiate swimmer who is likely to forgo his final year of eligibility to focus on training for the French Olympic trials (that are the same weekend as NCAA’s).
Men’s 400 free
Australia’s David Mckeon used his front-end speed (he’s a 200-400 guy) to lead this men’s 400 wire-to-wire for the win in 4:48.78. That’s a career-best time for him, ranks him 21st in the world, and puts him within striking distance of countrymate Thomas Fraser-Holmes for the second 400 spot on Australia’s 2012 Olympic Team. At just barely 19, he’s already improved his time in this race by 6-seconds since last year, which is a huge leap at such an elite level, and he’s got a great swimming pedigree – his parents run a huge swim school down under, his dad Ron is an Olympian, his mother Susie is a former Commonwealth Games swimmer, and his younger sister Emma is also a young star of the Australian squad. All signs are pointing McKeon straight towards some big-time success a year from now.
Michael Klueh used his ever-more infamous closing kick to almost chase down McKeon in the final 50 meters, but came up just short in 3:48.84. This 400 is Klueh’s best shot at the 2012 Olympic Team, but he’s going to have to find a way to turn that speed on a bit earlier in this race if he’s going to catch the front-end guys like Matt McLean.
Well behind the two was Japan’s Sho Uchida in 3:51.93 for bronze. The other American, Stanford’s David Mosko, finished 5th in 3:53.89.
Women’s 50 breaststroke
The United States’ Annie Chandler moved into 12th in the World Rankings with her winning time of 31.11 in the women’s 50 breaststroke. She was a few tenths faster in this race at Pan Pacs in 2010, but her focus this year is building towards the 2012 Olympic Trials in the 100, which will come in Friday’s final session.
The runner-up was Canada’s Tera Van Beilen in 31.45, followed by Russia’s Valentina Artemyeva in 3rd in 31.74. Artemyeva is a powerful, leg-driven swimmer who is a two-time European short course champion as well as a former finswimming World Record holder.
This race was a representation of where the world’s breaststroke power lies, as the medalists here represent three of the four countries that medaled in any breaststroke difference in Shanghai (China was the 4th).
Full women’s 50 breaststroke results.
Women’s 100 backstroke
Japan’s Shiho Sakai became the first woman of the meet to defend a title in this women’s 100 backstroke with a winning mark of 1:00.28. That’s a faster time than she won with in 2009, though her prelims swim from that meet stands just .05 faster as the meet record.
Overall, this was a very well-swum final, with many swimmers posting times that are at-or-near their career bests. In 2nd was the USA’s Jennifer Connolly from Tennessee in her personal best of 1:00.50. She’s aimed at a tough double at the NCAA level, with this 100 back and the 100 fly coming very shortly apart in the event schedule, and so it’s good to see what she can do when she can focus on this race. Her prelims swim (a tenth better), ranked her 19th in the World; that marks her first trip inside the world’s top 20. She’ll have a tough decision after finishing her Tennessee career about which stroke to shift her focus to. The path to the 2016 Olympics in the 100 back is blocked by a pair of high schoolers who have both already been well under a minute, but in the easier path of the 100 fly, she’s not as highly-ranked internationally.
The bronze medal went to Belarus’ Aleksandra Herasimenia in 1:00.91. Herasimenia was the World Champ in the 100 free earlier in the year, but did well rotated 180-degrees on her back. That swim stands as the 2nd-best time of her career.
Full women’s 100 back results.
Men’s 200 IM
Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh might have left Shanghai with only a single bronze medal, but on his second rotation in China he seems resigned to have a much bigger impact on the medal list. In the men’s 200 IM, he took a commanding win in 1:57.86, with no competitor ever giving him a serious challenge throughout this race. This was the race where he took bronze at Worlds, where was just a touch faster.
The 2nd-and-3rd place swimmers were both from Japan, and though they both swam very different races, they converged upon very similar times. Yuya Horihata took silver in 1:59.74, by strength of a very good backstroke leg, whereas Yuma Kosaka took bronze (1:59.81) on the back of a good butterfly leg and a fantastic breaststroke leg (surprise, surprise).
Cory Chitwood of Arizona was the top American finisher in 5th at 2:00.53. That’s very close to his career-best set at US National two weeks ago. Austin Surhoff, who won the NCAA title in this event in 2010, placed 6th in 2:01.04, which is his best time ever.
Women’s 800 free relay
The American women completed a relay-trifecta in this meet by adding a Universiade title to their FINA World and Youth World Championship crowns over the past four weeks. The group of Karlee Bispo (2:00.19), Chelsea Nauta (1:58.66), Kate Dwelley (1:58.76), and Megan Romano (1:57.41) took a dominant win in 7:55.02. That breaks by two seconds the meet record that the Americans held from 2007 at 7:57.87.
American chances were in doubt briefly, until you realized that China had severely front-loaded their relay. That includes a 1:58.17 leadoff from Yi Tang. She must not have been feeling well on the day of the individual 200, as she’s done nothing but awesome times aside from that race, where she was three-seconds slower than this time.
The Chinese were in the lead through three legs of this race, but Ying Lu, who is a sprint specialist, lost 5-seconds of ground to Romano’s anchor, and her relay slid all the way back to 3rd in 7:59.62. The New Zealand relay demonstrated the huge benefit of putting your best swimmer on the anchor leg of a relay. Lauren Boyle finished in 1:58.60 and despite entering the water four-seconds behind was able to get her finger on the wall first for a silver medal in 7:59.60. New Zealand knows that they have two very strong legs to their 800 relay, and they’re now starting to see the development of more complimentary pieces to fill in around Boyle and Natasha Hind, which could make this an Olympic finalist group.
Full women’s 800 free relay results.
Medal Table
The United States and Japan have put some serious separation between themselves and the rest of the world in the medals table, with 20 and 17 respectively. As we see frequently from Japan, though, they stack up their totals with minor medals, though in this meet they still tie behind the United States with four golds.
With 13 sets of medals still up for grabs, there’s still plenty of room to shake up this table, with China the country with the most gold-medal opportunities left.
Full meet results available here.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States |
9 | 8 | 3 | 20 |
| 2 |  Japan |
4 | 4 | 9 | 17 |
| 3 |  New Zealand |
4 | 3 | 2 | 9 |
| 4 |  China |
4 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| 5 |  Italy |
2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 6 |  Australia |
2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 7 |  Hungary |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 |  Lithuania |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 |  Spain |
1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 10 |  Russia |
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 11 |  Brazil |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 |  Canada |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 |  Germany |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 |  Israel |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 |  Romania |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 |  South Korea |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 |  Ukraine |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 18 |  Austria |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 |  Belarus |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 |  France |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 |  Poland |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 30 | 28 | 30 | 88 | |
I agree. the total golds should be more than 30 as snyders and that lithuanian breastorker shared gold.
Not that it matters -but that medal table looks off.