Video interview captured by swimswam reporter Colin Blair.
Women’s 200 IM – FINAL – as reported by Braden Keith, swimswam editor-in-chief.
For the second time in two days, Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte finished a triple with a really impressive swim. This time, it came with a gold medal in the girls’ 200 IM, where she was a 2:12.32. That’s a new Meet Record, that breaks the 2:12.97 set by American Dagny Knutson back in 2008.
Meilutyte went out very hard in this race, taking her final turn in 1:39.72, three seconds ahead of the field. Though an anvil crashed on her a bit in the last 50 meters, she still took a major victory ahead of American runner-up Ella Eastin (2:13.76).
We may see this race creep more-and-more into Meilutyte’s schedule as she gets older and, presumably, stronger, but she’s still got a ways to go to be competitive with the true top-of-the-world swimmers, even if we only consider the first 150 meters where she looked so dominant here. We remember, though, that she’s still only 16.
Canadian Sydney Pickrem was 3rd in 2:14.36, and the other American Kathleen Baker was 4th in 2:14.83. Japan’s pair of Emu Higuchi (2:15.72) and 14-year old Hiroko Makino (2:16.06) were 5th and 6th, respectively.