We’re at the half way point in the meet, day four. Two new world records have been set here in Barcelona, and by no means is that the end of it all. As the meet continues to unfold, the possibilities for great races and times keep rolling.
The women from the 100 backstroke final get their chance at the splash and dash of their event today.
Is Nathan Adrian feeling better? He was visibly sick on night one following the 4x100m freestyle relay, and he’s had a solid two and half days rest. He is the defending Olympic Champion in the 100 freestyle, stealing just about everyone’s heart in her journey to the top last summer.
It won’t be easy this summer either, with the likes of Sebastiaan Verschuren (NED), James Magnussen (AUS) and Vladimir Morozov (RUS) in the event as well.
Katinka Hosszu will swim in her fourth indivudal event of the meet, her seventh swim of the meet. She failed to advance into finals in the 200 freestyle last night, which has some wondering if she starting to fatigue from her event line up/first three days or was it just an off swim?
Ryan Lochte has had a mixed bag of a meet thus far. There was scrutiny from the decision for him to be on the 4x100m relay and in his first individual event, the 200 freestyle, he failed to medal. Lochte seems like the logical choice to fill the void of Phelps here, but he is kind of risky pick. We’ll see how he bounces back from a rough start here today in his second event of the meet.
Day 4 Prelims Events:
Women’s 50m Backstroke
Men’s 100m Freestyle
Women’s 200m Butterfly
Men’s 200m IM
Here’s a look ahead to the schedule at finals tonight:
Men’s 100m Freestyle SEMI
Women’s 50m Backstroke SEMI
Men’s 200m Butterfly FINAL
Women’s 200m Freestyle FINAL
Men’s 50m Breaststroke FINAL
Women’s 200m Butterfly SEMI
Men’s 200m IM SEMI
Men’s 800m Freestyle FINAL
Links –
SwimSwam Landing Page
Omega Live Timing
Omega PDF Results
Women’s 50m Backstroke PRELIMS
Yuanhui Fu from China is known for her speed at the 50 split in the 100 backstroke. She backed up what she is known for as the top seed in the women’s 50 backstroke, finish at 27.55.
Her teammate Jing Zhao is 2nd at 27.81. The world record is Zhao’s at 27.06 from the tech suit era of 2009. It is possible that either one of these women could take down this mark by tomorrows final.
Bronze medalist in the 100 last night, Aya Terakawa of Japan finds herself in the 3rd position again this morning, with a time of 28.05.
Rachel Bootsma from Team USA made her individual debut in Barcelona, finishing 6th in 28.28.
Olympic Champion and new World Champion in the 100 backstroke Missy Franklin is 13th after this morning. 28.44 is about .5 off what she swam in Indianapolis, and she will have to pick it up tonight to have a chance at the top eight. And remember, she has this semi-final then two events later has the 200 freestyle final.
Same goes for last night silver medalist Emily Seebohm of Australia. She stopped the clock at 28.48, the 15th position of the morning.
Top 16: Fu, CHN; Zhao, CHN; Terakawa, JPN; Peris Minguet, ESP; Medeiros, BRA; Bootsma, USA; Favies, GBR; Quigley, GBR; Urbanczyk, POL; Da Rocha Marce, ESP; Baumrtova, CZE; Au, HKG; Franklin, USA; Jovanovic, CRO; Seebohm, AUS; Russel, CAN
Men’s 100m Freestyle PRELIMS
James Magnussen led off the 4x100m relay on the day 1 with a 48.00. After the preliminary heats, he sits first bettering his time from the other day at 47.71. He is our world leader this year, and he is just barely off his best of 47.5 this morning.
Magnussen made the rest of the field look slow. He is sitting 1st on the field by .8. Previously unranked this year Polish swimmer Konrad Czerniak is 2nd at 48.50.
Russia has become a powerhouse in the sprints, and Nikita Lobintsev is 3rd, 48.51, and teammate Vladimir Morozov is 7th, 48.67. Libintsev was ranked 7th while Morozov was 2nd in the world leading into Barcelona.
There’s a lot of talk that the men of Russia peaked too early in Kazan. Their 4×100 freestyle relay the other night would have won gold if they had repeated their time, but they fell short.
Cameron McEvoy from Australia was 4th in the world, and sits 6th after preliminaries today at 48.59.
Team USA’s top qualify was Jimmy Feigen in 9th, 48.86. Nathan Adrian is in the 12th place spot, displaying he may still be battling illness. Both will need bigger swims tonight to get into the top eight.
Magnussen seems to have displayed his dominance this morning, but the rest of the field is wide open.
Top 16: Magnussen, AUS; Czerniak, POL; Lobintsev, RUS; Shioura, JPN; Garcia Hernandez, CUB; McEvoy, AUS; Morozov, RUS; Timmers, BEL; Feigen, USA; Verschuren, NED; Dotto, ITA; Adrian, USA; Magnini, ITA; Gilot, FRA; Chierighini, BRA; Brown, GBR
Women’s 200m Butterfly PRELIMS
In her fourth individual event here in Barcelona, Mireia Belmonte Garcia isn’t slowing down. In her This is her seventh swim of the week she is our top seed in the 200 butterfly at 2:07.21.
Also in her fourth individual event and seventh swim of the week, Katinka Hosszu is 2nd close behind at 2:07.51. She was very dominant through the 150m mark this morning, and not making the final in the 200 freestyle may play to her advantage in this event.
Her teammate and also top ten performer this year, Zsuzsanna Jakabos is 7th, 2:07.87.
Asia is known for the talent in the 200 butterfly. Hoshi Natsumi from Japan (2:07.59), Zige Liu from China (2:07.63) and Liuyang Jiao (2:07.79) from China are the 3rd-4th-5th finishers this morning. These three women had the top 3 of the top 4 fastest times in the world this year.
Jiao is our defending Olympic gold medalist, with Hoshi taking bronze. Garcia finished in between them taking home silver last summer (the first female Spaniard to medal in swimming). Between these three and Hosszu, this race could be very close tomorrow night.
Cammile Adams (USA) is 6th, 2:07.83 about .3 better than her time in Indianapolis. Maya Dirado making her intentional debut is 13th, 2:10.25.
14 out of the 16 advancing to semi-finals were all top 20 performers this year. Solid performance by all the women in the 200 butterfly this morning.
Top 16: Belmonta Garcia, ESP; Hosszu, HUN; Hoshi, JPN; Liu, CHN; Jiao, CHN; Adams, USA; Jakabos, HUN; Pirozzi, ITA; Hentke, GER; LaCroix, CAN; Ignacio Sorribes, ESP; Lowe, GBR; Dirado, USA; Savard, CAN; Pinto, VEN; Maranhao Melo, BRA
Men’s 200m IM PRELIMS
Laszlo Cseh of Hungary finds himself as the top seed out of prelims this morning, clocking in at 1:57.70. Kosuke Hagino of Japan is 2nd at 1:57.73.
Cseh dropped about a second off his world best, and Kosuke was the second best coming into Barcelona. Cseh is stronger at the breaststroke leg than Hagino, but then Hagino hammers it home. The combination of these two could spell trouble for Ryan Lochte, the defending Olympic gold medalist.
Shun Wang of China is 3rd at 1:57.83, who had the best last 50 by .8 on the field. Wang’s weakest looks to be the backstroke, but has a great second 100 to back him up.
The Swedes had a huge improvement from Simon Sjodin. He finished 4th at 1:58.02, over a second drop from his start time.
Next is Ryan Lochte in 5th at 1:58.46. He looked relatively calm and controlled this morning. He should easily be better in semi-finals tonight. His training partner down in Florida, Conor Dwyer is 10th, 1:58.78.
After bouncing around on what to swim this year, Thiago Pereira from Brazil is 6th at 1:58.54. His teammate who was third in the world heading into Barcelona, Henrique Rodrigues is 7th, 1:58.73. Rodrigues didn’t make it out of semis last summer in London, and he has the capability of reaching the finals here but has to swim better tonight to be more comfortable making it in.
Daniel Tranter from Australia and Markus Deibler from Germany are tied for 8th at 1:58.76. The two of them are both top 10 in the world this year.
Top 16: Cseh, HUN; Hagino; JPN; Wang, CHN; Sjodin, SWE; Lochte, USA; Pereira, BRA; Rodrigues, BRA; Tranter, AUS; Deibler, GER; Dwyer, USA; To, AUS; Seto, JPN; Carvalho, POR; Pavoni, GBR; Mao, CHN; Schooling, SIN
Adrian didn’t get out ass fast as he usually does and barely put enough effort to qualify. I will hard to beat magnusson this time, the semis will tell us a lot.
Please France 2 (French public TV channel), fire Roxana Maracineanu as swimming expert! I respect her career, she has been the first French who has won a world gold medal in 1998. But her comments on TV are really awful, horrible, catastrophic, disastrous, Her last funny analysis was after the women’s 100 back when she said Emily Seebohm shouldn’t be worried for the future and she would beat very quickly Missy Franklin. Very funny. I would have said the total opposite. The advantage of Missy in London was small. This time it was huge. And when we know her big margin of progression in all the technical parts of the race, I would bet more on a 57.50 in the… Read more »
A side note: Seebohm is still fastest woman in textile in 100m back. I expected it would be Missy after Barcelona. However, it’s still possible to do in W’s medley relay.
Fastest or not, the most important thing is to win. Times don’t count at the big world meets. Missy is now 2-0 against Emily and I don’t think it will change in the next years.
Yep, I agree. It was just a side note. I just had to give some love to this nice Australian who seemed to be very happy with her silver.
Yes totally ! She is absolutely out of real knowledge to comment correctly !
If Adrian is just going easy in the heats, I think it is to give James Magnussen the favorite tag just like in London.
Magnussen needs to learn to trust his second half speed. He needs to understand that at his best, he can go out under 23, and still come home half a second faster than anyone else in the world. So what if people are out fast? People used to be spooked by his closing speed much more than they are of Adrian’s opening speed. Play to your advantages. Playing to Adrians means you are throwing away your biggest weapon.
Until James learns this, we will never realize his full potential.
All Mags needs in the final is to get a lane far away from Adrian. We now know that Adrian early speed spooks him.
hahah, maybe Magnussen should try to get lane 2 or 7! But then Adrian is a little bit ill and posts a bad time for him and ends up on lane 1 or 8; right next to Magnussen. 🙂
Hehe, you just know that would happen as well.
adrian needs to get a lane next to mags in the final, it’s his only hope barring amazing recovery and sudden taper
Men’s 200 IM has gone a long way and now has so much depth. Unbelievable that all semifinalists are under 2 minute. Poor Stravius!
In 1990, the world record was 2:00.11 (Wharton)… Now he would be 20th. Crazy.
or consider this: in 2003 thorpe (who was well of his best) went 1:45.14 and 3:42.58, which would have been good enough for silver in both finals
It remains to be seen how Phelps’s commanding, absolutely dominant 1:56.04 will do (no way it gets worse than 4th) but heck, Thorpe’s second place 1:59.66 would have qualified 15th.
So in 10 years gold went to silver in the freestyles but silver went to 15th in the IM. The relative depth is incredible
I’m calling Mary T.’s best butterfly time holding up somewhere between 3rd and 5th place this week.
Brians is a poopface
disregard that, it was posted my someone else
Rooting for USA… But it would be a neat parallel with Agnel if Pellegrini won (“surprise” entry, etc.).
For me the W’s 200m final is also the highlight. All women within one second. Just wow. Pieces are ready for a thriller.
A couple of thoughts on the lines. Muffat is on 6. She can’t see anyone over the last 50m, but I don’t know if it’s bad for her. Missy and Muffat are Pellegrini’s right side which is very good for Federica. Muffat and Missy will shoot themselves out fast which places pressure on Federica to go out fast too. Pellegrini sees her prey over the last 50m.
But let’s not forget the lines 2 and 3, Sjöström and Costa-Schmid. Sjöström felt heavy in the semis. She said that it felt like she was weighing 150 kilos.… Read more »
And let’s not forget lines 1, 7 and 8 either. This is the final in which anything can happen.