They could still see changes, but the organizers of the 2013 Junior World Championships that run from August 26th-31st in Dubai, AUE have released the initial start lists for the meet.
See the full start lists here. (Updated, but note there are STILL some errors to be worked out – at least one birth year is wrong, and nobody is really seeded at 3:52 in the women’s 400 IM).
Among the revelations is that World Record holder Ruta Meilutyte will swim both of the events in which she’s the fastest ever: the 50 breaststroke and the 100 breaststroke. She’s the top seed in both events, but Ukraine 15-year old (30.73/1:06.73) is the 2nd seed in both race and close enough to make things a little interesting.
Meilutyte will also swim the 100 free, where she’ll be wedged between Russia’s Maria Baklakova and Australia’s Shayna Jack as the 2nd seed; the 50 fly where she’s the 26th seed (28.30 – she should destroy that time and has a chance at finaling), the 200 IM (2:13.69 – 4th seed), and the 50 free (25.26 – 4th seed).
The best of those races could be the 200 IM, where Meilutyte is joined in the top 5 seeds by Japan’s Emu Higachi (2:12.00), the two Americans Kathleen Baker and Ella Eastin, and the other Japanese entrant Hiroko Makino, who at only 14 years old is the 5th seed in 2:14.62.
Aside from Meilutyte, the men’s sprints should be the highlight. The best-known names are Evgeny Sedov, Luke Percy, and Caeleb Dressel, but even without Brazil’s Matheus Santana, there’s 8 swimmers seeded at 22.71 or better in the 50 free, and five seeded under 50 seconds in the boys’ 100 free.
Remember that this meet is for boys born in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998, and girls born in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999.
Relay lineups still haven’t been posted, but could be very interesting in the mixed 400 medley and free relays.
Anyone know how the mixed relays are chosen? Are any of the relays allowed to be changed? I know in some cases for the US the fastest relay combination doesn’t correspond with what it should be according to the selection criteria.
Ruta started her swimming career in 50 and 100 free.
She is really a sprinter, in the same vein of Jessica Hardy.
Well, before Jessica Hardy I never heard of a breaststroker being that good of a freestyler.
I think Ruta could be very good at 200 IM as well, because she already is very good at 50 free and 50 breast and seems to be more of a sprint type,
TOO MANY EVENTS
Do you talk about the medley relays?
I’m not a fan of these new events.
The mixed relays especially. Just scrolling thru the psych sheet takes an absurd amount of time. I do like the implementation of the sprint 50’s over all 4 events, but I really think they’ve got to get rid of some other events to balance things out. I don’t think the average swim junkie would agree with the events I’d like to see cut, so I won’t state them here. However, I believe to make swimmming more popular and marketable outside the swim community we need fewer events.
Why would fewer events make it more popular? (Meet length?) Wouldn’t more events mean more chances that ya stumble on something someone likes?
Steve Nolan – I think we have to view it more as a whole event. Nobody goes to a basketball game because they love free throws, or they love three pointers…they go to a basketball game because they love watching basketball.
Dressel vs Sedov vs Percy!
If the 3 swimmers are at their best, it should be great to watch.
Perhaps 1 of them, or 2 of them or the 3 will be in the sprint’s olympic finals in 2016!
Watch out for Shayna Jack, still 14 yo. She could become Australia’s latest in the long history of its female sprint stars.
I don’t know her.
Is she more like Cate Campbell, very fast when she was 15 and has continued to improve, or more like Yolane Kukla, big muscles very young, very fast 3 years ago and hasn’t improved so much since then?
In conclusion, is she fast so young because she already physically mature or is she simply a great natural talent?
I can’t answer your question for sure because I’m neither her family nor her coach, but from her photos, Shayna Jack seems like an average teenage female swimmer.
Whats encouraging about her is also that she has great 200 free already (she has already gone 2:00), a sign that it’s not all muscle for her. I don’t know what her height is, but she doesn’t strike me as a tall girl, so that may work against her (or not having the same potential as Campbell, for example).
You mentioned Kukla. Well, people (including I) were already saying in 2010 (just check out that year’s swimmingworld/swiminfo’s articles) that Kukla’s mindboggling times as 13/14 yo were mostly due to her being a… Read more »
Thank you. I ask you about her because you are always an expert about Australian swimming.
I’m really impressed by the quality of the Australian sprint on the women’s side for 10 years. It looks like there’s a new young talent each year! Jodie Henry, Libby Trickett, Alice Mills, Emma McKeon, Campbell sisters, now Shayna Jack. USA hasn’t still found their secrets. 🙂
Not only does there seem to be a number of errors, it also seems like you could enter an event with whatever time you wanted. I guess this is not that big a deal for the circle seeded heats, but in the distance events only the fastest heat swims at night. Some of the top times in the distance events are…suspect.
From what I’ve seen Ruta has apparently been a 2:30.10 in the 200 m
Breast in Feburary http://rankings.swimming.ca/index.php?page=resultDetail&id=50214821
Wow, thanks for the info. She’s actually done it just recently!
That’s pretty decent, big improvement over her previous PB.
By contrast, RMP went 2:41.82 at 15 and 2:39.08 at 17, but then she was a late bloomer compared to Ruta 🙂 Another interesting comparison is Solntseva who was born a year later than Ruta and has already been 2:23.01.
It will be interesting to see if she does take up the 200, but I think she might be more of a Ronald Schoeman sprint anything type. I love seeing her pure speed over 50s.
Too bad the US didn’t take the fastest 50 stroke swimmers. Especially with the 200 relays. If they are swimming the events at the world level, we should add that to the criteria for team selection.