2021 ISL Playoffs – Match 4
- Saturday, November 20 – Sunday, November 21
- 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm local time; 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST
- Pieter van den Hoogenband Zwemstadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands
- Short Course Meters (25m – SCM) Format
- ISL Season 3 Schedules, Start Times, & More
- Day 1 Start Lists
- Results
- Teams Competing: Cali Condors, London Roar, LA Current, Iron
It would be an understatement to say that the London Roar came to play on the opening day of the fourth ISL playoff match in Eindhoven.
With the club’s playoff backs potentially against the wall, if the LA Current managed to prove they were the superior club after what happened last week, London came outs guns blazing and set itself up to challenge for the match victory on Sunday.
The Roar won eight events on the day, including a pair of relays, and had several top 3-4 finishes where they avoided getting jackpotted, and the points really added up.
London developed some momentum early on, depite the fact it took until midway through the day for them to take the overall lead.
In the match’s opening stages Christian Diener and Kyle Chalmers picked up big wins over LA’s Ryan Murphy and Cali’s Caeleb Dressel in the men’s 200 back and 50 free, respectively, and then the true swing started shortly thereafter with the 200 IMs.
Duncan Scott and Sydney Pickrem swept the 200 IM events for London, and then the men won the 400 free relay (scoring a 38-point jackpot) and Kira Toussaint added a victory in the women’s 50 back to give the club a 15.5-point lead on the Cali Condors in the team race.
Scott added a win in the men’s 400 free, Freya Anderson was the top scorer in the women’s 400 free (due to checkpoint scoring) despite placing second to Cali’s Hali Flickinger, and the Roar women won the 4×100 medley relay to hand the Condors their first loss of the season.
The day wrapped up in the men’s medley, where Cali touched first but London went 2-4 to score the most points of any club and earn the right to select the skins stroke for tomorrow.
As for the Current, they grabbed hold of second place for a while, with Murphy picking up a big win in the men’s 50 back, but Cali’s medley relay performances moved the reigning league champions back into second place heading into Day 2.
TEAM SCORES – THRU DAY 1
- London Roar, 287.5
- Cali Condors, 238.0
- LA Current, 228.0
- Iron, 156.5
DRESSEL NOT AT HIS BEST
It’s not entirely surprising to see Caeleb Dressel not swimming his best after two months or so out of competition. It’s now time for the club to lift him up as they hunt for the victory tomorrow, something he has done for them on so many occasions over the course of his ISL career.
Individually, Dressel was third in the 50 free in 21.04, just under four-tenths off his season-best of 20.67, and that was his only entry.
Cali opted not to use him in the 100 fly (or the 200 IM, which he raced once this season), and he instead took on both relays.
Dressel anchored the men’s 4×100 free in 47.26, about two seconds off what he’s normally capable of, and he also split 49.60 swimming fly on the medley relay. Not a bad split, but still almost eight-tenths back of what Tom Shields went for LA (48.83).
SKINS PICKS
Women: Backstroke
- LA Current eliminates butterfly
- Cali Condors eliminate freestyle
- London Roar selects backstroke
Men: Backstroke
- LA Current eliminates freestyle
- Cali Condors eliminate butterfly
- London Roar selects backstroke
London opted for backstroke in both skins, a no-brainer in both cases.
For the women, they’ve got an ace-in-the-hole in Kira Toussaint, while for the men they’ve not only got Christian Diener and Guilherme Guido, but their only other option was what remains a team weakness until Adam Peaty shows up: breaststroke.
MVP RACE
Scott’s pair of individual victories puts him in the lead in the Match MVP race by half a point over Lilly King, with Kelsi Dahlia, Toussaint, Ryan Murphy and Beata Nelson all firmly in the mix as well.
With backstroke being the skins for both men and women tomorrow, Toussaint, Murphy and potentially Nelson will have a great opportunity to make a run for the MVP award.
- Duncan Scott (LON), 31.0
- Lilly King (CAC), 30.5
- Kelsi Dahlia (CAC), 26.0
- Kira Toussaint (LON), 25.5
- Ryan Murphy (LAC), 25.0
- Beata Nelson (CAC), 24.5
- Emma McKeon (LON), 24.0
- Kyle Chalmers (LON), 22.0
- Bernhard Reitshammer (IRO), 21.0
- Abbey Weitzeil (LAC), 19.5
0001150015FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF21.pdf (omegatiming.com) startlists for day 2 now up Dressel only swimming 100m fly in mixed medley relay
and 100 IM.
Is LON’s lead sufficient to hold up for the win ?? Unlikely, unless they can snag more than a couple of wins with significant jackpots. Possible …. certainly but again needing a few results to fall their way as I cannot see them winning either skins.
Sufficient to secure 2nd in match and a more secure finals berth ?? Probably just enough but again; will do well to “help themselves” with regards to event results and any “spoilers” from IRO that can hurt LAC will be gratefully taken.
I have faith. It will all come down to skins honestly, which London don’t seem to ever do well in. London are still 25 points ahead of Cali with half the session done, and 50 ahead of LA.
Roar may not get first but to get third it will have to be a perfect storm against. Although that has happened before.
So proud of the Roar today. Particularly happy that Pickrem has got back to close to her best. It was awful to hear that she had some issues that led to her not having the best Olympics, so it’s great to see her getting a bit of glory.
Out of 20 events today, Roar scored the most points in 9 and the least points in only 2. While they were helped by some relay jackpots, they just covered the field really well and swam sooo much better than last week. I don’t want to get my hopes up too much but if they can win tomorrow that would be amazing. And if they keep this level up they could have… Read more »
What were her challenges?
Diener got German records in 100 and 200 back yesterday
Predictions for tomorrow based on last week’s results:
London has a solid lead, but their day 1 is better than their day 2 and Cali and LA both have pretty good day 2s, and a better history with skins. Obviously this week’s results could be very different and there are a lot of close races, but this is for a bit of fun.
W100 Free: McKeon should win followed by Weitzel and Kromo. LA and LON break even but both gain points on CAC.
M100 Free: Kyle should win, followed by Ress and Rooney. Dean swam this for LON last week and was jackpotted in 8th, so it depends who LON puts in as their second swimmer, but the top… Read more »
I think Scott swims 200 free here instead of MMR. On paper he wins it, and it shouldn’t affect his 400 IM too much given his margin over the field there.
100% this….he swims the 200 free and will be fine in the 400 IM.
last week he swam the mixed medley breast leg and went 57 (his weakest stroke!)
this weak I see Murdoch stepping into that after a 57 in the medley relay B team.
i reckon Duncan goes 1:41 and wins jackpotting a few and Roar have a decent lead going into the skins
Lahtinen’s announced that she’s swimming 200fly and 200free, so likely Emma’s focusing on the mixed relay
Go Roar! It’s like watching a different team compared to last week.
I suspect the result will come down to skins yet again, and honestly I have no idea who is going to win skins. It could literally be a close touch that decides the match.
Women
LON: Women will almost certainly be Toussaint and Atherton. The pressure is all on Toussaint here because Atherton hasn’t been on her game lately. Toussaint won the 50 back and has the potential to sweep three wins, but also the field is so strong that all it takes is one mistake and CAC and LAC could pounce. Unlike CAC and LAC, LON really has no chance of getting two swimmers into the final… Read more »
Obviously Murphy will win the men’s and I’m not overly confident in Toussaint winning the women’s.