Hannah Miley Breaks European Record on Day 1 of Short Course Worlds

Day 1 from the 2012 World Short Course Championships in Istanbul are underway, and American Ryan Lochte will kick off his first title defense from the middle lane in the men’s 200 free. Other awards will also be handed out in the women’s 200 fly, the women’s 400 IM, and the Men’s 400 free relay/the Women’s 800 Free Relay. There will also be a slew of semi-final races to set up for Thursday’s finals session.

Men’s 200 Free – FINAL

Ryan Lochte took this 200 free out almost the same as the morning through 100 meters. On the back half, though, he poured on the speed (with a better turnover on his gallop than maybe we’ve seen in the past) to push to a 1:41.92 victory, giving him a second-straight victory in the event. After it looked like Lochte might runaway with this race going into the last lap, Germany’s Paul Biedermann finished with a huge final 25 to maybe make Lochte fans a bit nervous coming into the final touch. The wall came just a hair too soon, for the World Record holder, though, and he took silver in 1:42.07: his best time since the end of the suit era.

American Conor Dwyer took his first ever individual world championship medal by finishing 3rd in 1:43.87. His last 50 pulled him away from Australia’s Jarrod Killey in 1:44.04.

USC Trojan Dimitri Colupaev was 8th in the final in 1:45.38, about half-a-second slower than his prelims swim.

Women’s 50 Breast – SEMIFINAL

Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte, 15-year old Olympic Champion in the 100, continues to be golden at every wall, with another Championship Record in the women’s 50 breaststroke with a 29.51. That cleared her 29.56 from prelims, and leaves her ever-closer to the 28.80 World Record (though that will still be a reach in the final).

Meilutyte’s swim now ranks her 4th on the all-time list and clears a Hardy swim as a textile best; that even with a poor finish.

The runner-up Alia Atkinson swam a best time as well for a new Jamaican Record with a 29.62 (she’s now 5th all-time). She is very much in this race as she too can clean up her walls a bit in the final; Atkinson’s stumble came on her pullout off of the turn, and for a swimmer who’s so good underwater in these breaststrokes, that can make a huge difference.

American Jessica Hardy was 3rd in 29.82, which is her first time under 30 seconds in textile. Other notable finalists include Rikke Moller Pedersen (5th – 30.19); Sarah Katsoulis (5th – 30.19), and Rebecca Ejdervik (30.25).

Men’s 100 Back – SEMIFINAL

Matt Grevers is the long course Olympic Champion in this race; Matt Grevers, despite his height, is very good in short course. Matt Grevers is very popular. None of that, however, will give him this 100 backstroke title, as Russia’s Stanislav Donets is once again showing how good he is in short course despite struggles in the 50 meter track. He swam a 49.98 in this semi-final (after going out in 24.0) and sticks every underwater right at the 15 meter mark. He had the fastest split on both the front-half and on the back-half.

Grevers is still in the hunt though, taking 2nd in 50.24 after winning the opposite heat of Donets. Australian Ashley Delaney took 3rd in 50.66, followed by his teammate Bobby Hurley (50.70), who really polished up his backstroke skills with a great World Cup run.

The home crowd of Turkey gets to watch their first finals individual swimmer tomorrow in the 100 backstroke thanks to a 50.77 from 22-year old Iskender Baslakov for the 5th seed. That crushes his own National Record by 7-tenths.

Among the more disappointing misses is Spanish swimmer Aschwin Wildeboer, who was 10th in 51.16.

Women’s 200 Fly – FINAL

Since 2009, Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu has had trouble since 2009 hitting her peak at World Championship meets; but a fall where she really did almost nothing but race, race, and race some more at the World Cup, she’s found a groove this year and taken her first of what should be many medals in the 200 fly. Hosszu touched in 2:02.20 which breaks Mireia Belmonte’s Meet Record from 2010, her own Hungarian Record, and makes her the 2nd-fastest swimmer in the history of this event.

Hosszu used her infamous closing speed to hold off China’s Liuyang Jiao, who in 2:02.28 is now the third-best ever. It looked like Jiao might nip-off Hosszu just at the touch as she took an extra, well-timed stroke to Hosszu’s longer finish, but Hosszu justgot her hands on the wall.

The bronze medal went to Britain’s Jemma Lowe. Swimming in an outside lane, she did the only thing she could do: took this race out as hard as she could, and waited to see what she had left. She broke the British Record with that swim in 2:03.19 even while splitting only 32.5 on the last 50 meters.

China’s Liu Zige, who is still a mile ahead of Hosszu as the World Record holder, finished 4th in 2:03.99. The lone American finalist, Kathleen Hersey, was 5th in 2:05.90. That’s two seconds slower than she was at last year’s Duel in the Pool around this time of year (and in fact slower than she was this summer in long course).

Men’s 100 Breast – SEMIFINAL

Since South African Cameron van der Burgh pulled out of this 100 breaststroke, Italy’s Fabio Scozzoli has been the favorite to win this race on the basis of his World Cup swims and past results. Along that vein, he took the top seed in 57.66. That’s not a bad time, but overall the whole of the field will be expecting better in the final.

The top 6 swimmers all came from the 2nd heat, including former Cal Bear and Estonian swimmer Martti Aljand in 57.82, just ahead of Russia’s Viatcheslav Sinkevich in 57.83. That breaststroke leg was the biggest question mark for the Russian medley relay, and with a sub-58 swim for Sinkevitch, they may move ahead of the Americans as favorites to win that race later in the meet.

The Americans’ top finisher was Kevin Cordes in 4th in 57.92, with teammate Mike Alexandrov finishing 8th in 58.35.

Other notable finalists include 200m World Record holder (long course) Akihiro Yamaguchi from Japan in 58.15 and former NCAA Champion Damir Dugonjic of Slovenia in 58.18.

Sweden’s Simon Sjodin was disqualified for taking too many dolphin kicks on his underwater pullout, blatantly obvious to anyone with a view of the near-side underwater camera, giving some hope for regulation to those who had lost all in this discipline.

Women’s 100 Backstroke – SEMIFINAL

Denmark’s 16-year old Mie Nielsen missed out on the European Championships, where her teammates swam so well, but showed here that she’s in every bit the shape that they were there. In the semi’s of this 100 back, she broke the Danish National Record once again with a 57.15. Australian Rachel Goh took 2nd seed, winning her heat, in 57.39. That’s still a few tenths off of her season best after looking very good in the World Cup series so far this year this year.

British swimmer Georgia Davies is the 3rd seed in 57.41. Disappointingly, the Ukraine’s Daryna Zevina, who was awesome in a short stint on the World Cup, was only 6th in 57.66, so look for better from her in finals. American high school swimmer Olivia Smoliga was 7th in 57.74 for a final on her first senior international roster.

Britain’s Lizzie Simmonds, American Megan Romano, and Italian Arianna Barbieri all missed the final.

Men’s 100 Fly – SEMIFINAL

Tom Shields of the United States and Chad le Clos of South Africa were stroke-for-stroke for this entire 100 fly in the second semi-final, and they took the top two seeds separated by only a hair in 50.14 and 50.16, respectively. That’s a tenth off of a lifetime best for Shields, who sits only behind Ian Crocker on the all-time American Rankings.

The Netherlands’ Joeri Verlinden will be a small surprise in the final in a middle lane with a 50.43: his best time of the post-textile era. Ryan Lochte made a final on his 2nd swim of the night as the 4th seed in 50.59.

Hungarian Laszlo Cseh was 5th in 50.72, splitting his race 24.20-26.52. That’s about as close you’ll get to an even-split in this race at this level. Spain’s Rafael Munoz, tied for 6th with Poland’s Konrad Czerniak in 50.73.

Women’s 400 IM – FINAL

Britain’s Hannah Miley knows exactly what kind of IM’er she is. She’s not a big swimmer, she’s not very tall, she’s not a great butterflier or backstroker. What she is, however, is a very technical swimmer, with virtually zero wasted energy, and a breaststroker.

Miley sat 4th headed into the breaststroke leg, but by the time she had finished her first pullout, she had already basically made up the gap and overtaken the lead. By the time she got to the end of the breaststroke, she had a big two-second gap. She’s a very good freestyler as well, and held off even China’s legendary closer Shiwen Ye for the win in a new Meet Record of 4:23.14. That cuts over a second off of Mireia Belmonte’s 4:24.21 from 2010.

That also breaks Miley’s own Scottish, British, and European Records that had been a 4:23.4 set at this year’s European Championships.

Ye had a very good closing freestyle leg, though in 58.0 it didn’t impress nearly as much as she did to close to gold in the Olympics. She took 2nd in 4:23.33: a new Chinese Record that ranks her 4th in the history of the event. Ye’s underwaters are a huge weakness for her; that doesn’t cost her in long course, but with so many turns in short course it was a death-blow to her hopes for silver.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu won’t have the same ironwoman performance we saw from Belmonte in 2010 with just a bronze here in 4:25.95. She was two seconds faster at Europeans. She didn’t get the lead she needed on the butterfly leg of this race to take gold.

The other Hungarian, Zsu Jakabos, was 4th in 4:26.99 (also an off time for her), and American Maya DiRado was 5th in 4:28.55.

Nobody was close to Julia Smit’s World Record.

Men’s 400 Free Relay

American Anthony Ervin has been toying with his pacing all season long in this 100 free; this time, he chose to go out fast, but it didn’t work out as well for him as it did during the World Cup, as he led off in 47.15 to leave the Americans 4th after the first leg (he was better thrice during the World Cup).

Meanwhile, Russia’s Vlad Morozov, trained at USC, had no problems with his pacing as he led off their relay in a 45.52: a new Russian Record, a textile best, and a Meet Record.

The Americans, however, still had plenty of tricks in their bag, and played this race perfectly-suspensfully as each of the next three legs (Ryan Lochte 45.64; Jimmy Feigen 47.25; and Matt Grevers 46.23) picked off one of the three relays ahead of them to give the Americans a gold in 3:06.40.

The Russians meanwhile couldn’t support Morozov’s impressive leadoff. Despite leading after each of the first three swimmers, a dreadful 48.26 anchor from Artem Lobuzov left them off of the podium.

A young Italian 400 free relay that has been maturing together for years seems to be entering a new level this year as they finished for silver in 3:07.07. That includes a 45.94 on the 2nd leg from Marco Orsi, who just yesterday turned 22. If the 30-year old Magnini can hang around as a solid 4th leg for Rio (or if they can find a replacement elsewhere), this relay could be Olympic medalists.

Australia had no explosive legs, but with Tommasso D’Orsogna and Kenneth To as anchors were solid for a bronze medal. The Turks finished 8th in 3:13.73.

Women’s 800 Free Relay

The Americans again couldn’t lead off of the first leg in this 800 free relay, with a 1:56.03 leadoff from Megan Romano kicking things off in 3rd, but Chelsea Chenault had another outstanding swim with a 2nd leg of 1:54.78 to put the Americans into the lead, where they would remain.

Georgia teammates Shannon Vreeland and Allison Schmitt took the U.S. home in 1:55.4 and 1:53.0 for a victory in 7:39.25.

The Russians took 2nd in 7:42.77 and China was 3rd in 7:43.26, far off of their World Record time from this meet in 2010. Yi Tang splits a 1:53.3 for the Chinese, giving hope that she might challenge Schmitt for gold in the individual race.

Hungary got very good 1:54 anchors from Jakabos and Hosszu weren’t enough to put them on the podium as they placed 4th in 7:44.70. The Brits were 5th in 7:46.

Denmark only finished 7th in this race, but Mie Nielsen had another outstanding swim to anchor them in 1:53.73, thirdd only to Schmitt and Tang in the ranks of fastest splits.

Full Day 1 Results available here.