In the final prelims session in Athens, Georgia, Megan Romano and Laure Manaudou are looking to finish up the meet on fire, just as they’ve swum the rest of the meet.
In the 100 free, Romano took the top seed in 55.27, which already matches her career-best. If the rest of this meet is any indicator, she should blow by that and under 55 for the first time in her career in finals. Manaudou, meanwhile, was 3rd in 56.51, which believe it or not is a career-best time for the swimmer who rarely swam this event off of a flat-start in the first incarnation of her career (though in a relay, she’s been as fast as 55.05). Though it’s hard to compare the swim historically, due to the small sample size, her finals swim should establish a new benchmark for her to work off of headed towards London.
Shannon Vreeland finished in between the pair in 56.37.
In the 200 backstroke, Romano continued to swim well, and took the top seed in 2:13.15. Though Manaudou has looked pretty good through this meet, she may have finally run out of gas a little in this 200 back, as she finished as the 5th seed in 2:17.13. That’s 11 seconds behind her career-best time from early 2008.
Finals will begin a little early today: at 4:30 US East Coast Time.