2023 World Swimming Cup Budapest Day 3 Prelims: Pilato Punches 29.87 50 Breast

2023 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – BUDAPEST

• Friday, October 20th – Sunday, October 22nd
• Budapest, Hungary
• LCM (50m)
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• Day 1 Finals Live Recap/Day 2 Finals Live Recap

We’ve entered the final day of action at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Budapest, which means tonight’s finals session marks the end of the 2023 series.

Swimmers staked their claims on events in their bids for maximizing points towards the overall World Cup swimming crown.

Entering Budapest, Qin Haiyang of China and Kaylee McKeown of Australia held healthy leads in the standings through both Berlin and Athens.

22-year-old McKeown already wowed the crowd here in Budapest, firing off new World Records in the 50m back on day one and the 100m back yesterday. We’ll see if the Aussie Olympic champion can make it 3-for-3 as she took on the 200m back in this morning’s prelims.

McKeown indeed led the field, putting up a casual swim of 2:10.64 to land lane 4. She’ll be flanked by Belarus’ Anastasia Shkurdai, competing as a neutral athlete here, who notched 2:11.36 as the 2nd-seeded swimmer. On McKeown’s other side will be Canada’s Kylie Masse who touched in 2:11.71.

Other contenders in the women’s 2back include the host nation’s Eszter Szabo-Feltothy (2:12.11, 4th seed) and Canada’s Ingrid Wilm (2:13.22, 5th seed). Wilm’s teammate Taylor Ruck also sneaked into the final as the 8th seed in 2:14.81.

Dutch Olympian Marrit Steenbergen dove in twice on the morning, racing in the women’s 100m free and 200m IM, with just the men’s 200m IM heats separating her 2 events.

In the former, Steenbergen snared the 4th seed, posting a morning effort of 54.30. Topping the women’s 100m free pack was 30-year-old Swedish Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom.

Sjostrom logged 53.96 as the sole racer under the 54-second barrier, but she’ll be chased by the Australian Campbell sisters in tonight’s main event. Bronte Campell clocked the 2nd-swiftest result in 54.26 while Cate Campbell earned the 4th seed in 54.35.

Hong Kong dynamo Siobhan Haughey lurks as the 5th seed with a morning outing of 54.42.

These 4 swimmers were the top performers last week in Athens, with Haughey grabbing gold in 52.55 to Sjostrom’s silver medal-worthy 53.32. Bronte Campbell was 3rd in 53.60 and Cate Campbell was 4th in 53.88.

As a refresher Haughey busted out a new national record and World Cup Record of 52.02 at the Berlin stop of this series, becoming the 3rd-best performer in history.

As for the 200m IM, Steenbergen earned the pole position in a time of 2:15.18. She’ll try to improve upon her result from last week in Athens where the Dutch national record holder hit 2:13.82 for 4th place.

The field as a whole looks different from the Athens final, with winner Sydney Pickrem of Canada, silver medalist Torri Huske of the United States and bronze medalist McKeown not among the contestants here in Budapest.

In their absence, Steenbergen’s primary competition includes 2nd-seeded Beata Nelson of the U.S. (2:16.94) and Anja Crevar of Serbia (2:17.49).

Nelson actually qualified for 2 finals, as she captured the 6th seed in the women’s 100m fly earlier in the session (59.21).

Taking the top spot in the 1fly was Aussie Alexandria Perkins, posting a morning swim of 58.37. But Sweden’s Louise Hansson is on the prowl, sitting just .03 behind in 58.40 as the 2nd seed while China’s Zhang Yufei holds the 3rd-quickest time in 58.43.

Last week, the Asian Games co-MVP Zhang fired off a new World Cup Record of 56.06 to win the gold.

Benedetta Pilato of Italy wasted no time making her presence known in her signature 50m breast event. The 18-year-old crushed a morning time of 29.87, a result which comes within striking distance of the 29.56 World Cup Record Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte put up in Berlin.

We reported how Meilutyte had fallen ill and her status was questionable. She did not appear in this morning’s 50m breast prelim. In her stead, Pilato’s hunters include neutral athlete Alina Zmushka who hit 30.70 and Irish ace Mona McSharry who registered 30.71. American Lydia Jacoby lurks as the 7th seed in 31.28.

On the men’s side, Michael Andrew of the United States topped the 50m fly prelims with a time of 23.35. He holds a slim lead over Aussie Ben Armbruster who snagged the 2nd seed in 23.48 while teammate Isaac Cooper rounded out the top 3 in 23.50.

Andrew will try to upgrade from his bronze medal result from Athens. He produced a time of 23.32 behind silver medalist Cooper who hit 23.19. It was Egyptian national record holder Abdelrahman Sameh who scored the gold in Athens in 23.04. Sameh is indeed among the finalists for tonight, holding the 4th seed here in 23.53.

Budding British backstroker Oliver Morgan hit a time of 54.46 to lead the 100m sprint, representing 1 of 3 sub-55-second swimmers on the morning. Italian World Record holder Thomas Ceccon snagged the 2nd seed in 54.94 while Swiss national record holder Roman Mityukov captured the 3rd seed in 54.97.

Morgan broke through in a big way this past April while competing at the 2023 British Swimming Championships, reaping gold across the 50m, 100m and 200m back events. He became the first man to complete a backstroke sweep in over a decade at the meet.

Additional Top Seeds

• Dutch Olympic silver medalist Arno Kamminga looked relaxed en route to landing lane 4 in the men’s 200m breast. The 28-year-old registered a result of 2:11.43 while teammate Caspar Corbeau was right behind in 2:11.44. A pair of Chinese aces are on the prowl, however, as World Junior Record holder Dong Zhihao and World Record holder Qin Haiyang logged results of 2:11.86 and 2:12.36, respectively. Qin is the man to beat, however, as the Asian Games co-MVP scored a new World Cup Record of 2:07.45 at the first stop in Berlin.
• Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys was rapid this morning in the men’s 200m free, posting a time of 1:45.91 to hold a healthy advantage over the rest of the field. Breakout athlete Maximillian Giuliani neared his lifetime best en route to snaring the 2nd seed in 1:46.31 while Aussie world champion in the 400m free, Sam Short, rounded out teh top 3 performers in 1:47.71. American Kieran Smith clocked 1:47.90 for the 4th seed.