2019 World Junior Championships: Day 2 Prelims Preview

7TH FINA WORLD JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019

• 50-Meter Course
• Duna Arena, Budapest (Hungary)
• Pool swimming: Tuesday, August 20 – Sunday, August 25, 2019
• Heats 9:30am GMT+2 (3:30 am EDT / 12:30 am PDT)/ Semifinals and Finals 5:30pm GMT+2 (11:30am EDT / 8:30am PDT)
• Meet site
• Entries book
• FinaTV Live Stream (subscription required)
• Live results

It’s morning number two in Budapest, and we’ve got prelims of six more events lined up, along with timed final heats of the girls 800 free.

Here are some of the top stories to watch:

Minakov vs Urlando in 100 Fly

Two of the top overall swimmers at this meet are Russia’s Andrei Minakov and American Luca Urlando. Minakov was the silver medalist at senior Worlds in the 100 fly, and Urlando put up a time mid-season in the 200 fly that would have taken silver in that event at Worlds.

They’ll square off in Minakov’s wheelhouse this morning, as the top two 100 fly seeds. Minakov, 17, could chase the world junior record of 50.62 (just two tenths faster than his best) from Kristof Milak in 2017. Urlando, 17, should be in the hunt for his first-ever sub-52 swim.

To make matters more interesting, the two were actually born just one day apart: Urlando on March 16, 2002 and Minakov on March 17.

Another Big Drop Looming for Gabor Zombori?

Hungary’s Gabor Zombori thrilled the home crowd last night with a blowout 400 free win. His amazing swim came from almost nowhere: his lifetime-best coming into the meet was 3:53.30, but he dropped a stellar 3:46.97 in prelims, only to go 3:46.06 in finals. He enters the 200 free this morning lined up as the 7th overall seed in 1:48.76, but if day 1 is any indication, we could be in line for a massive 200 free out of Zambori this morning.

Deep Field in Girls 100 Free

Maybe the most competitive prelims event will be the girls 100 free, where a slew of talented athletes will compete for the 16 semifinals spots. Outside of the top three (seeded with 54s and pretty likely to coast into semis), seeds #4 through #17 all come in with entry times in the 55s, and within .95 seconds of one another. It’ll take good swims across the board to make it through to semis, and tonight, things will get even more selective.

While the world junior record of 52.70 looks fairly safe, the meet record of 53.63 could be in jeopardy. American Gretchen Walsh is seeded just a half-second off of it, and already cut two tenths from her best time just last month.

Tough Doubles For US Boys

A few of the top swimmers on the American roster will face tough event doubles today. Carson Foster, 17, is the top seed in the 200 IM, and chasing a world junior record. But he’s also the third seed in the 200 free with only three events in between. Luca Urlando, meanwhile, has an even closer double, though a little less overall yardage: he’s the second seed in the 100 fly and the top seed in 200 free, with just a single event, four heats of girls 200 fly, in between.

Foster would face finals of both events tonight, but would have a lot more space (five events plus likely award ceremonies) in between, while Urlando would have the 200 free final and 100 fly semifinal just one event apart again.