2015 FINA World Championships: Day 4 Finals Preview

2015 FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Pool swimming: Sunday, August 2nd – Sunday, August 9th
• Prelims 9:30AM/Finals 5:30PM (Local Time)
• Kazan Arena Stadium
• Kazan, Russia (UTC+3 hours)
• Full Coverage
• All Sport Medal Tables
• Live Stream (Universal Sports)
• Schedule and Results

Day 4 Prelim Results & Finals Heat Sheet

Men’s 100m Freestyle Semi-Final

After their respective teams swimming poorly in the heats of the 400 free relay and consequently missing the final (therefore losing out on their chance to swim), Nathan Adrian and Cameron McEvoy will be looking to prove something tonight in the 100m semi’s and qualify for the final. Should the American and Australian coaches have recognized the chances of missing the final were greater than in the past and they should utilize their top swimmers such as Russia, France and Brazil did? Perhaps (yes). But that is in the past now and Adrian and McEvoy will be looking to show their stuff here. McEvoy qualified 2nd overall in 48.33, and Adrian qualified in a tie for 7th in 48.61. Both men will be joined in the first semi by relay gold medalist Fabien Gilot of France (48.73), Matheus Santana of Brazil (48.81) and surprise Pan American champion Federico Grabich of Argentina (48.48). Qualifying 1st overall was Ning Zetao of China in 48.11. Zetao set the Asian record in this event numerous times last year and will be looking to back it up with a world championship medal. Joining Zetao in the second semi will be the Russian duo of Vladimir Morozov (48.46) and Alexander Sukhorukov (48.64). Both coming off a silver medal in the 400 free relay, Morozov posted the fastest split of anyone with a 46.95 and will be very dangerous. Also in this semi-final will be France’s relay anchor hero Jeremy Stravius, Sebastiaan Verschuren (NED), Marcelo Chierighini (BRA) and Santo Condorelli (CAN). Condorelli is coming off a scintillating performance at the Pan Ams where he led off the 400 free relay in 47.98 which tied Vlad Morozov for the top time in the world this year. Condreolli has looked strong so far at this meet, swimming the fastest lead off time in both the 400 free relay heats and final. He’ll look to make his first world championship final after just missing out in the 50 fly (9th). Missing the final was Tommaso D’Orsogna (AUS), Jimmy Feigen (USA) and Kristian Gkolomeev (GRE). Paul Biedermann (GER) and Konrad Czerniak (POL) were both no shows this morning.

Women’s 50m Backstroke Semi-Final

100m backstroke champion Emily Seebohm of Australia qualified comfortably into the 50m back semi-finals, qualifying 3rd overall in 27.75. World #1 coming into the meet Etiene Medeiros is coming off a disappointing 100 back where she missed the final. She qualified 2nd overall in 27.74. Also qualifying in the top four were Fu Yuanhui (27.66) and Liu Xiang (27.79). Also advancing into the semi-final was 100m silver and bronze medalists Madison Wilson (T-7th) and Mie Nielsen (5th). 31 year-old veteran Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe will be looking to make her first final of the championships after finishing in a tie for 9th overall in the heats. Six different women swam sub-28 seconds this morning and it looks like thats what it will take to advance to the final tonight. Rachel Bootsma of the United States was their only entrant in the event, but didn’t swim in her heat (DNS).

Men’s 200m Butterfly Final

The first final of the night is going to be a very exciting one. We have seen a few surprises through the heats and semi’s of the men’s 200 fly, including Laszlo Cseh looking phenomenal swimming a pair of 1:53’s and Chad Le Clos almost missing the semi-final with a shaky prelim swim. Cseh and Le Clos both won their respective semi-finals, setting up a duel in the final. Cseh had an incredible swim, coming home in an unbelievable 28.94 and qualifying almost a full second ahead of Le Clos in 2nd (1:53.53 to 1:54.50). The Japanese duo of Daiya Seto and Masato Sakai fill be factors, qualifying 5th and 3rd respectively. Seto was the #1 ranked swimmer in the world in this event coming into the meet and he will look to battle with Cseh and Le Clos for the title. Also cracking the top 8 were three young European up and comers, Viktor Bromer of Denmark, Jan Switkowski of Poland and Louis Croenen of Belgium. All three have an outside shot at a medal tonight, especially Bromer who qualified 4th and had the second fastest closing 50 of anyone in 29.21. Rounding out the field is American Tom Shields who qualified 8th in 1:55.75. Shields has a lot of front end speed and will look to use that to his advantage way out there in lane 8. In an interview after the semi-final, Chad Le Clos stated he thinks Cseh and Seto are capable of going 1:52, and he obviously believes he can too, so it will be interesting to see what kind of times we see in the final. Cseh and Le Clos are the 2nd and 3rd fastest performers ever, with Cseh at 1:52.70 and Le Clos at 1:52.96. Seto has yet to break 1:54. After going undefeated throughout the 2014 world cup circuit and short course world championships, Le Clos will look for his first victory of these championships after coming up short in the 50 fly and 200 free, both events he won at the short course world championships. Among those missing the final were Leonardo de Deus of Brazil, Tyler Clary of the United States and Joseph Schooling of Singapore.

Women’s 200m Freestyle Final 

One of the most highly anticipated races of the competition, the women’s 200 freestyle final has finally arrived. The semi-finals were incredible to watch, as American stars Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky competed after swimming a final earlier in the session. Franklin had a disappointing 5th place in the 100 backstroke, and was looking to refocus with the 200 free. She did that and more, finishing 1st in the second semi in 1:56.42 and qualifying 2nd overall. Ledecky was coming off a world record performance in the 1500 just some 15 minutes prior. After trailing by a small margin heading into the 150, Ledecky closed strong and finished in 1:56.76, good for 6th overall and a lane in the final. That had to be one of the most incredible doubles anyone has ever done. The first semi-final featured world record holder Federica Pellegrini and iron lady Katinka Hosszu, who swam well qualifying 1st and 4th respectively. Femke Heemskerk of the Netherlands had the fastest time in the world coming into the meet, and had a decent swim after a lacklustre one in the heats, though she did almost miss the final qualifying 7th. The field is incredibly close, as every swimmer in the final swam 1:56 in the semi’s and were all separated by just 72 one hundredths of a second. Also qualifying for the final were Shen Duo of China (3rd), Veronika Popova of Russia (5th), and Emma McKeon of Australia (8th). It’s unfortunate Swedish star Sarah Sjostrom decided to drop this event from her program, because this race sets up to be truly epic. Despite some off performances so far don’t expect Franklin to let her world title be taken away without a fight.

Men’s 50m Breastroke Final

Yesterday we saw some more spectacular performances by Adam Peaty and Cameron van der Burgh. After going back and forth in the 100 breastroke, ultimately won by Peaty, they set the pool on fire in the 50m heats and semi’s. In the morning heats van der Burgh tied Peaty’s world record of 26.62, taking his record back (well, kind of) after Peaty broke van der Burgh’s record of 26.67. Peaty swam just as well in the heats, going a blistering 26.70. In the semi’s it was Peaty’s turn, as he blasted a 26.42 breaking the world record by two tenths of a second. van der Burgh swam slightly slower than he did in the heats, going 26.74. They each won their respective semi-finals and easily advanced to the final tonight with the top two times. In a very fast field we saw three other swimmers go under 27 seconds, with American Kevin Cordes setting a new American record going 26.76 to qualify 3rd. Short course world champion Felipe Franca Silva of Brazil qualified 4th in 26.87 and Damir Dugonjic of Slovenia swam his second straight sub-27 going 26.92 and qualifying 5th. Also swimming in the final will be Glenn Snyders (NZL), Caba Siladi (SRB) and Giedrius Titenis (LTU). Just missing the final was Dmitriy Balandin (KAZ) and Hendrik Feldwehr (GER). The battle for gold should come down to Peaty vs van der Burgh round 2, with the three others under 27 battling for the bronze. For now, it is advantage Peaty.

Women’s 200m Butterfly Semi-Final

In a very interesting heat 4 of the women’s 200 fly this morning we saw Zhang Yufei of China break Katie McLaughlin’s junior world record of 2:07.08 when Yufei went 2:06.92. The funny thing is she did it while swimming beside McLaughlin. Zhang had a very strong back half of the race with the fastest second 100 of anyone. McLaughlin also swam very well, qualifying 2nd overall in 2:07.32. Both will have lane 4 for their respective semi-finals. 2014 Youth Olympic champion Liliana Szilagyi of Hungary qualified 3rd overall in 2:07.46, and her countrywoman Katinka Hosszu was 6th in 2:08.07. Cammile Adams of USA was the top qualifier for anyone over 20 years of age, 4th in 2:07.96. Hosszu, McLaughlin and Adams will be joined in the first semi-final by Australian Brianna Throssell. Throssell came into the meet with the 4th fastest time in the world of 2:06.60. In the second semi-final we will see Zhang and Szilagyi in the middle of the pool, along with Madeline Groves of Australia, Natsumi Hoshi of Japan, Franziska Hentke of Germany and Audrey Lacroix of Canada. Hentke (1st), Groves (2nd) and Hoshi (5th) all held top world ranking coming into this event, and Lacroix is coming off a title at the Pan American games. The women will have to swim a 2:07 to earn their spot in the final, as 5 of them already did it in the heats. It will be interesting to see how Katinka Hosszu fares in this race with just the men’s 50m breast final separating the 200 free final and this semi. Katerine Savard of Canada scratched this event, likely will swim in the mixed medley final.

Men’s 200m Individual Medley Semi-Final

After a somewhat disappointing 4th place finish in the 200 freestyle, American Ryan Lochte came back with a very strong performance in the 200 IM prelims pacing the field in 1:57.90. Lochte looked smooth throughout, notably throwing down a very fast breastroke split of 32.83 before cruising home on the freestyle. Qualifying 2nd was Daniel Wallace of Great Britain who set a new personal best and rebroke his own Scottish record. Conor Dwyer of the United States had a strong swim after disappointing performances in the 400 free relay and 200 freestyle. Other notable names advancing to the final were Pan American champion Henrique Rodrgiues of Brazil (6th), his teammate Thiago Pereira (8th) and Daiya Seto (7th). The firs semi-final will feature Rodrigues, Wallace, Dwyer and Pereira. The second will have Lochte and Seto, along with Wang Shun of China who qualified 3rd overall and Thomas Fraser-Holmes of Australia who was 13th. Surprisingly Laszlo Cseh was a no show for this event this morning, after swimming so well so far this meet. After posting fantastic results in the butterfly events thus far it appears he and his coach have decided to focus solely on the 200 fly final and the 100 fly which will go later on in the week.

Men’s 800m Freestyle Final

The 800m freestyle heats were very interesting to watch, as some tactical errors cost some established swimmers a place in the final. What is usually done by the top distance swimmers in preliminary heats is they just try to stay at the front of their respective heat the whole way before doing what is necessary to get their hand on the wall before the others in the heat. This proved very costly for some yesterday morning, as heat 5 was significantly faster than the rest, leaving those who swam in the other circle seeded heat in trouble. 6 of the 8 finalists are from the 5th heat and 7 of the top 10. In the 4th heat, Sun Yang and Ryan Cochrane swam to a 1-2 finish after chasing down France’s Damien Joly who led for much of the race. Sun was 7:47.87 and Cochrane 7:50.28. Henrik Christiansen of Norway swam a personal best in the heat prior of 7:49.70. Still, it looked as though Cochrane would be alright sitting in 3rd with just one heat to go. However, early on in the final heat it was clear he might be in trouble. The pace of the heat was significantly faster than heat 4, led by American Connor Jaeger in 7:44.77. After Jaeger there was Gregorio Paltrinieri (7:45.15), Stephen Milne (7:46.41), Michael McBroom (7:47.05), Mack Horton (7:47.08), Wojciech Wojdak (7:48.95) and Akram Ahmed (7:49.83). There it was, seven swimmers faster than Cochrane in heat 5 alone, leaving him on the outside looking in for tonight’s final. Cochrane fell into a similar trap at the 2012 Olympics, winning his heat of the 400 freestyle only to end up in 9th. Even Sun Yang was close to missing out as he was 6th and had it not been for his burst of speed in the last 100 he might have been on the outside as well. This isn’t the first time we have seen tactical errors cost final berths this meet (See: USA 400 free relay preliminary). Anyway, it is going to be an amazing final nonetheless. Jaeger, Paltrinieri and Sun will look to have a terrific battle at the front. Michael McBroom won silver in the event two years ago and Mack Horton will look to prove his 400m free mishap was just a tactical mistake and not indicative of his form. Sun will look for his third consecutive title in the event, and Cochrane won’t medal in this event for the first time since 2007.

Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay Final

The mixed relays are new to the world championships. They were first showcased at the short course world championships last December and will make their finals debut at these world championships to close off this session. The American team smashed the existing world record, but some of the individual performances from their squad is what was most impressive. Ryan Murphy and Kevin Cordes both didn’t qualify to swim the individual 100 back or breast, but got their chance to show what they had in the prelims this morning, and the results were eye popping. Murphy swam a massive, massive personal best time of 52.18. 52.18. 52.18!? That would have won the 100m back title just last night. And Cordes followed with a blistering 58.33 breastroke split, faster than the 100 breast winning time of 58.52. Cordes obviously had a relay takeover, but still with how he has swum so far in the 50 breast we know he would of had a great shot at a medal in the 100. These performances put the Americans qualifying procedure for this meet into further question, but thats a topic for a different article. Kendyl Stewart and Lia Neal finished off the American relay as they went 3:42.33. The Americans were followed by Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Italy, China, Hungary and Canada in the top 8. Brazil just missed the final in 9th and France was disqualified. We can expect some substitutions from all of the teams heading into the final, with USA likely keeping their first three in tact and possibly putting Simone Manuel in for freestyle. Other swimmers we may see in the final are Adam Peaty for Great Britain, Vladimir Morozov for Russia and maybe Daniel Gyurta for Hungary. There a few different ways to approach this race, but the most popular strategy is to lead with two men to get the team as far ahead as possible and give the two women maximum confidence heading into their own legs. This strategy was best utilized by the Americans at the 2013 Duel in the Pool, where Cordes and Manuel helped USA beat out Europe in a tie breaker race.