Australia's Bonnie McDonald, Ukraine's Daryna Zevina Set Meet Records in Action-Packed Day Two Finals at FINA Youth Worlds

Day 2 was a “finals day” from the 2011 FINA Youth World Swimming Championships in Lima, Peru. The meet alternates between nights with very few finals (like the 4 from last night) and nights with many finals (like tonight’s 8).

Girls 800 free

This women’s 800 free was a real knock-down, slug-it-out battle between the three medalists: Bonnie McDonald (Australia), Gillian Ryan (United States), and Claudia Dasca (Spain). At the 600 meter mark, the three were in a near dead-heat, but McDonald was the only one who had the nerves to hold the pace through the finish. Her open-water pedigree (where she was 21st at the World Championships in the 5k) paid off at the end of this race as she tore her way to a gold-medal winning time of 8:32.30, which is a new Meet Record. That swim broke the old mark done by Russia’s Elena Sokolova at 3:32.75 in 2008.

Ryan and Dasca kept even for another 100 meters before the Spaniard again fell off of the pace. Ryan was about 6-seconds slower than her National Title winning swim from two weeks ago, but took silver in 3:33.46. Dasca picked up her second bronze medal of the meet (along with the 400 IM) in 3:34.29. Almost chasing her down was Canada’s Brittany MacLean in a 10-second time drop at 8:34.58. At only 17, MacLean is swimming out of her mind in this meet, and is an exciting name to watch in 2012 headed towards the Olympics.

The United States’ Rachel Zilinskas was 5th in 8:37.89.

Boys 100 back

The United States’ Jacob Pebley just barely missed the meet record by .02, but still went way under his own career-best in a winning time of 55.01, which easily cleared the rest of the field. Italy’s Fabio Laugeni and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino came down to the final lunge for silver, with Laugeni getting his hand in first in 55.68. Hagini was .01 behind in 55.69, followed by the other American, Jack Conger in 55.79 for 4th.

Girls 200 fly

Spain scored their second medal of the day on the women’s side when Judit Ignacio Sorribes won the 200 fly in 2:08.25. Ignacio has made huge leaps forward this year under her new coach, Frenchman Frederic Vergnoux, and with training partners Claudia Dasca and, no surprise, Mireia Belmonte. Vergnoux replaced well-known Australian coach Michael Piper, and Ignacio says that he’s already ramped up the swimmers’ yardage, and exposed them to new training techniques, like altitude training.

Italy’s Alessia Polieri took silver in 2:09.65, with Japan’s Miyu Otsuka in 3rd in 2:11.35. The top-finishing American was Olivia Barker in 2:12.50.

Boys 200 free

Chad Bobrosky narrowly missed his own Canadian Age Record in the boys 200 free, set in Shanghai at the World Championships, but still finished with his second-best time ever in 1:49.14. He won this race on his third 50, which so often seems to be the case in these 200 meter races. Poland’s Pawel Werner was 2nd in 1:49.39. That’s a new Polish junior record, breaking his own mark by just over five-tenths.

Australia’s Cameron McEvoy was good for bronze in 1:50.12.

Girls 50 breaststroke

Italy’s Lisa Fissneider built very well throughout the three rounds of this 50 breaststroke and peaked in the final with a time of 31.51. That puts her in the top 30 in the world in this race. The United States’ Sarah Haase took silver in 31.84, and France’s Claire Polit was 3rd in 31.95.

This race was our first glimpse of Japan’s Kanako Watanabe, the 14-year old who lit up the world with her 3rd-ranked 200 breaststroke swim at the Japan Open. She gets better as the races get longer, but her 32.01 in this 50 placed her 4th, which is a great start to the meet from her. She has been a few tenths faster in this race this year, but not by a significant amount (31.83).

Boys 100 breast

Results for this race not available at time of posting

Girls 100 backstroke

The Ukraine’s Daryna Zevina broke the meet record in the women’s 100 backstroke for the 2nd time in three rounds with her winning time of 1:00.59, In all, she cut almost a second off of Liz Pelton’s 1:01.41 set at the last version of this meet in 2008.

China’s Yuanhui Fu became the 2nd swimmer under Pelton’s old mark with her silver-medal swim of 1:01.13. That cuts almost a second off of her career-best time, which was previously at 1:02.05. It’s great to see a Chinese swimmer peak in the summer instead of Chinese Nationals, which was a rare occurrence at this year’s World Championships. The next in the long line of great British backstrokers is emerging in 17-year old Emma Saunders in 1:02.35, which is a career-best time for her.

Canada’s Chantal van Landeghem made her first finals appearance in this race, but finished only 4th in 1:02.45. She finished about three-tenths faster at her season-ending meet last year, which was Jr. Pan Pacs, and was probably hoping to dip under 1:02 for the first time in her career. She did swim this race shortly after her 100 free semi-final.

The top-placing American was Kylie Stewart of the Jr. National Champions Dynamo Swim Club in Atlanta. She took 5th in 1:02.60.

Boys 200 IM

Japan’s Kosuke Hagino bookended his meet with another medal. In addition to his bronze from the 100 back, he took a gold in this men’s 200 IM in 2:00.90, which broke his own Meet Record set in this morning’s prelims session. The old mark was held by Germany’s/USC’s Dimitri Colupaev from the 2008 meet at 2:02.28.

Hagino’s time bumped him up a few spots in the World Rankings to 39th.

Greece’s Andreas Vazaios took silver in 2:01.64. That swim obliterates the previous under-18 National Record held by Ioannis Giannoulis in 2006 more than 3 seconds slower. The bronze medal went to the Ukraine’s Maksym Shemberev in another National Junior record of 2:02.37. In 2011, he’s come on very strong, and has cut roughly 5 seconds off of the Ukraine’s Junior National Record.

Semifinals

• The United States’ Lia Neal (55.18) and Australia’s Bronte Campbell (55.47) both cleared the old Meet Record in the 100 free semifinal. US Jr. National Champion Simone Manuel took the 3rd seed in 56.08, followed by Canada’s van Landeghem
• The men’s 100 fly semifinal results were not available at posting, but we’ll work on getting them.