2022 World Junior Champs: Coetze Scratches 50 Fly Semis (Day 4 Finals Preview)

2022 FINA WORLD JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• August 30-September 4, 2022
• Lima, Peru
• Long Course Meters (50m), Prelims/Semis/Finals
• Meet Site
• Event Schedule
• Live Results
• Entries List
• Top 5 Girls’ Storylines
• Top 5 Boys’ Storylines
• Click here to download an Excel sheet with events by swimmer
• Day 4 Prelims Live Recap
• FINA YouTube Link (USA, Canada)
• How to Watch

Day 4 Finals Event Schedule:

• Girls 50 Back – SEMIFINAL
• Boys 200 Breast – FINAL
• Girls 50 Fly – FINAL
• Boys 50 Back – FINAL
• Girls 100 Breast – FINAL
• Boys 50 Fly – SEMIFINAL
• Girls 400 FREE – FINAL
• Boys 50 Free – FINAL
• Girls 200 IM – FINAL
• Boys 4×200 Free Relay – FINAL

Scratch Report:

South Africa’s Pieter Coetze has scratched semifinals of the boys 50 fly after finishing 4th in prelims this morning (24.36). Coetze broke the Championship Record in the 50 back last night and will be racing in the final tonight, which is set to be swum just 2 events before the 50 fly semifinals. With the path to a medal in the 50 fly appearing to be rather challenging for Coetze, it seems he’s chosen to focus on the 50 back solely instead.

Session Preview:

There are a ton of finals in tonight’s session and just 2 semifinals. We’re on record watch in 3 of tonight’s events. Let’s start with the boys 50 back final, where Pieter Coetze broke the World Junior Championships Record last night in semifinals. He swam a 24.58, breaking the previous record and landing just 0.24 seconds off the African Record of 24.34, which is a “supersuited” record from the 2009 World Championships. Coetze already broke the African Record in the 100 back earlier in the meet.

Coetze won’t have an easy path to the gold medal, however, as Poland’s Ksawery Masiuk is going to be pushing him the whole way. After Coetze broke the Championship Record in semifinals of the 100 back, Masiuk came back and re-broke the record in finals, winning gold. Masiuk was 24.91 in semifinals, but could easily end up on top of the podium tonight.

Portugal’s Diogo Ribeiro broke the Championship Record in the boys 50 fly this morning, swimming a stunning 23.12 in prelims. With the swim, he took 0.10 seconds off the previous record, which was held by versatile American sprint star Michael Andrew. Ribeiro has been as fast as 23.07 in the event, a time which he swam at the European Championships last month, setting a new Portuguese Record. Additionally, he is incredibly close to the World Junior Record, which is held by Andrei Minakov at 23.05.

Japan’s Mio Narita led prelims of the girls 200 IM in 2:14.74 this morning. While that time is well off the Championship Record, which sits at 2:11.03 by Viktoria Gunes from the 2015 Championships, Narita won Junior Pan Pacs gold last week in 2:11.22. Narita won the girls 400 IM on night 1 of these Championships, breaking the Championship Record.

Turkey’s Merve Tuncel was the fastest swimmer in prelims of the girls 400 free this morning, swimming a 4:14.06. That time was nearly 8 seconds off Tuncel’s lifetime best, but she was still the only swimmer this morning to crack 4:16. Unless someone in this final tonight puts up a massive personal best performance, Tuncel should be speeding to a gold medal tonight. If she has a lifetime best in her, she could have a shot at the Championship Record, which is a 4:05.42 from Australian Lani Pallister.

The boys 4×200 free relay saw the top 4 teams finish within a second of each other this morning, setting us up for an exciting final race of tonight’s session. Italy led the way this morning, swimming a 7:25.82, while Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary were all 7:26.80 or faster. There were no swimmers under 1:50 in the event this morning, so if a team is able to get 1 or 2 swimmers under that mark tonight it could make the difference between winning or not.