2017 FINA World Championships: Day 7 Prelims Preview

2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, July 23rd – Sunday, July 30th
• Budapest, Hungary
• LCM (50m)
• Full Competition Schedule
• Meet Info
• Psych Sheets
• Omega Results
• Pick ’em Contest
• Event-by-Event Previews

The penultimate preliminary session from Budapest will feature five events, including three 50m races starting things off.

The women’s splash n’ dash goes first, where Sarah Sjostrom and Simone Manuel will swim side-by-side after Manuel’s massive upset over the Swede in the 100 free final. Despite that hiccup, Sjostrom is still the favorite here and overall has performed well.

Those two will swim in the 10th and final heat, with Pernille Blume and Ranomi Kromowidjojo highlighting the other two circle-seeded heats. Both have performed very well here, especially Blume who won bronze in the 100 free after failing to make the final in Rio. She is the reigning Olympic gold medalist in this event, however, and Kromowidjojo was the champ back in 2012.

The men’s 50 back will be a fun one, with a few of the competitors making their individual debuts here in Budapest. One of those is Frenchman Camille Lacourt, who will look for the three-peat in his last competitive meet. His countryman Jérémy Stravius will join him in the 5th of 7 heats.

100m back winner Xu Jiayu centers heat 6, joined by Japan’s Junya Koga. In the last heat we’ll see Justin Ress make his Worlds debut from lane 4, and 2015 silver medalist Matt Grevers and Australian Mitch Larkin will have lanes 5 and 6.

The three fastest performers in history, Ruta Meilutyte, Yuliya Efimova and Lilly King highlight heats 4, 5 and 6 of the women’s 50 breast, and all have a legit shot at gold. Defending champion Jennie Johansson joins Meilutyte in heat 4, and Great Britain’s Sarah Vasey and 100 breast silver medalist Katie Meili will both have lane 5 in heats 5 and 6.

Next will be the mixed 4×100 free relay, where there will be a total of 26 teams competing in three heats.

After winning the men’s and women’s 100 free titles, as well as the men’s and women’s 400 free relays, both for the first time simultaneously since 1991, the Americans will be the heavy favorites here. They’ll swim in heat 1, with the Italians and Russians in heat 2 and Australia, Hungary, Netherlands, France and Canada all contesting heat 3. Lineups will be announced prior to prelims.

The men’s 1500 will wrap things up with a total of four heats. Park Tae Hwan will swim out of one of the non-circle-seeded heats, holding lane 4 in heat 2.

Heat 3 will have Australians Mack Horton and Jack McLoughlin in the middle of the pool, with Felix Auboeck, Wojciech Wojdak and Sun Yang all in there as well.

The last heat will feature Italians Gregorio Paltrinieri and Gabriele Detti, the Olympic gold and bronze medalists from last summer. Mykhailo Romanchuk will hit the water for the first time at the meet, as will Americans True Sweetser and Robert Finke who make their Worlds debuts from lanes 1 and 8.