World Short Course Championships: Day Three Prelims

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MANCHESTER, England, April 11. FOUR world, and countless continental and national records, have now been broken at the FINA World Short Course Championships held in Manchester. All of this in just two days of swimming. What is in store on day three?

Men's 50 back
Randall Bal of the United States led qualifying with a sterling time of 23.55, just off his American record time of 23.33 and not far off the world record of 23.27 held by Thomas Rupprath of Germany. Bal will be looking to return the title to the U.S. for the first time since Neil Walker won in 2000.

Great Britain's Liam Tancock shattered his national record of 24.01 set in 2005 with a second-seeded 23.64, while Venezuela's Albert Subirats qualified third in 23.71.

Peter Marshall of the U.S. (23.74) and Brazil's Guilherme Guido (23.81) took fourth and fifth with Guido's time standing as a Brazilian record. Guido owned the previous record with a 24.23 at the Belo Horizonte World Cup stop last year.

Great Britain's Matthew Clay (23.87), Rupprath (23.92) and Russia's Stanislav Donets (24.00) earned the rest of the prime seeds heading into semis.

The rest of the semifinal round will be made up of South Africa's Gerhard Zandberg (24.16), Spain's Aschwin Wildeboer (24.23), China's Sun Xiaolei (24.27), Canada's Callum Ng (24.29), Australia's Ashley Delaney (24.30), Israel's Guy Barnea (24.32), Australia's Robert Hurley (24.32) and Slovakia's Lubas Krizko (24.41).

Event Results

Women's 200 back
Expect a world-record performance during finals of the women's 200 back as Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe continues her finest meet. Coventry dropped a fabulous time of 2:03.69 on the crowd at the MEN Arena to break her African record of 2:03.86 from 2004. The performance is just half-a-second off the world record of 2:03.24 set by Japan's Reiko Nakamura set in February. Coventry also broke the meet record of 2:04.97 previously held by Lindsay Benko since 2002.

Great Britain's Elizabeth Simmonds clipped Sarah Price's national record of 2:04.44 set back in 2001 with a second-seeded time of 2:04.21, while two-time defending champ Margaret Hoelzer of the U.S. qualified third in 2:04.84.

Australia's Meagan Nay touched fourth in 2:05.54, just off Fran Adcock's national record of 2:05.37 set last August, while New Zealand's Melissa Ingram finished fifth in 2:05.55 to lower her national record of 2:06.01 set last December.

Adcock (2:06.53), Ukraine's Kate Zubkova (2:06.67) and Mary DeScenza of the U.S. (2:07.05) will also vie for the world title during the championship heat this evening.

Event Results

Men's 50 fly
Venezuela's Albert Subirats, coming off a strong NCAA season during which he helped Arizona to its first men's NCAA team title, qualified first with a time of 23.01.

Croatia's Mario Todorovic nipped Alexei Puninski's national record of 23.20 from 2004 with a second-seeded 23.15, while New Zealand's Corney Swanepoel destroyed William Benson's national record of 23.78 from 2007 with a third-place 23.23.

Australia's Adam Pine qualified fourth in 23.28, while Slovenia's Jernej Godec took fifth in 23.30 to clear Peter Mankoc's national record of 23.56 set in 2006.

Australia's Christopher Wright (23.34), Ukraine's Sergiy Breus (23.35) and Nick Walkotten of the U.S. (23.42) made up the rest of the top eight.

Other semifinalists will be Germany's Johannes Dietrich (23.54), Kenya's Jason Dunford (23.55), the Netherlands' Bastiaan Tamminga (23.56), Argentina's Gustavo Daniel Paschetta (23.59), Russia's Evgeny Korotyshkin (23.60), Great Britain's Matthew Bowe (23.63), New Zealand's Moss Burmester (23.72) and Great Britain's Mark Foster (23.73).

Notably, Paschetta broke Argentina's national record of 23.77 previously held by Pablo Martin Abal since 2002.

Event Results

Women's 100 breast
Jessica Hardy of the United States, coming off a world record in the women's 50 breast yesterday, will enter the 100 breast semis as the top seed with a time of 1:05.31. She will need to drop a second to catch Tara Kirk's American record of 1:04.30, while the global standard sits in Leisel Jones' hands with a 1:03.86.

Great Britain's Kate Haywood knocked half-a-second from the 1:06.51 national record of Kirsty Balfour set in 2006 when Haywood punched the pad in 1:06.08. Meanwhile, Jade Edmistone qualified third in 1:06.38.

Austria's Mirna Jukic finished just shy of her national record of 1:06.33 with a fourth-place 1:06.49, while Elizabeth Tinnon gave the U.S. two in the top eight with a fifth-place 1:06.91.

Russia's Yuliya Efimova will be looking to atone for her false start disqualification that cost her the silver medal in the 50 after taking sixth in the 100 preliminary round with a 1:06.94.

China's Sun Ye (1:06.98) and South Africa's Suzaan van Biljon (1:07.12) took seventh and eighth.

Also earning spots in semis were Australia's Sarah Katsoulis (1:07.16), China's Randi Wang (1:07.42), Balfour (1:07.46), Belarus' Ina Kapishina (1:07.54), Russia's Alena Alekseeva (1:07.95), Poland's Beat Kaminska (1:08.86), Switzerland's Patrizia Humplik (1:08.94) and Japan's Kahori Sato (1:09.14).

Event Results

Men's 400 free
Italy's Massi Rosolion topped qualifying with a time of 3:42.53 and will be looking for his eighth world championship medal in tonight's final. He will also have his national record of 3:39.55 in his sights.

Australia's Nicholas Sprenger placed a close second with a time of 3:42.66, while Great Britain's Robert Renwick pipped a national record with a third-place 3:42.67. He beat Paul Palmer's national standard of 3:42.70 set back in 2000.

Russia's Nikita Lobintsev finished fourth with a time of 3:42.79, while Italy's Emiliano Brembilla took fifth in 3:44.10. Great Britain's David Carry wound up sixth in 3:44.27, while two-time defending champ Yuri Prilukov of Russia made it into finals with a seventh-place 3:44.29.

Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski and Robert Margalis of the U.S. set up a long-distance swimoff as the duo tied for eighth with matching 3:44.49s.

Margalis came out on top during the swimoff, 3:43.23 to 3:43.31.

Event Results

Men's 200 IM
Ryan Lochte of the U.S. will not only be hunting Laszlo Cseh's world record time of 1:52.99 during finals after clocking a 1:55.49 to lead qualifying, he will also be looking for his 12th short course world medal to time him with Mark Foster for fifth all-time.

The Great Britain duo of James Goddard (1:55.51) and Liam Tancock (1:55.68) qualified second and third, both under James Hickman's national record of 1:55.80 set 10 years ago in Paris.

Australia's Leith Brodie qualified fourth with a time of 1:56.15, while New Zealand's Dean Kent took fifth in 1:56.74 to clip his national record of 1:56.84 set in 2005.

Austria's Dinko Jukic (1:56.85), Jeremy Knowles of the Bahamas (1:57.09) and Portugal's Diogo Carvalho (1:57.88) completed the championship heat qualifiers.

Event Results

Women's 400 free
Bronte Barratt put herself in a strong position to become the first Australian to win the women's 400 free at a World Short Course Championship when she clocked a 4:01.88. She should also have a strong shot at lowering her national record of 3:59.94 this evening.

Great Britain's Joanne Jackson qualified second in 4:02.86, while Romania's Camelia Potec took third in 4:04.09.

New Zealand's Helen Norfolk claimed fourth place with a 4:04.51 to smash her national record of 4:05.93 set last December, while Spain's Erika Villaecija finished fifth in 4:04.52.

Australia's Kylie Palmer (4:04.74), Katie Carroll of the U.S. (4:04.82) and South Africa's Melissa Corfe (4:05.09) rounded out the title hopefuls. Notably, Corfe dipped under her national record of 4:05.61 set in 2004.

Event Results

Men's 200 breast
The Ukrainian breaststroke mantel may just be shifting to Igor Borysik as he claimed another national record with a time of 2:07.28. That swim surpassed the 2:07.45 set by Valeriy Dymo back in 2006. Long course work will still tell the tale for Borysik, but he has been on fire at this meet.

Great Britain's Kristopher Gilchrist picked up the second seed with a time of 2:07.46, while Japan's Kosuke Yonehara finished third in 2:08.00.

Denmark's Chris Christensen qualified fourth in 2:08.15, while Bulgaria's Mike Alexandrov (2:09.27) and South Africa's William Diering (2:09.29) took fifth and sixth, respectively.

Ryan Hurley of the U.S. (2:09.54) and Austria's Maxim Podoprigora (2:09.61) completed the top eight.

Event Results

Women's 400 medley relay
Australia's foursome of Belinda Hocking, Jade Edmistone, Samantha Hamill and Angie Bainbridge qualified first in a time of 3:56.32, while Great Britain's team of Melanie Marshall, Kirsty Balfour, Ellen Gandy and Caitlin McClatchey took second in 3:59.80 to destroy the former national record of 4:03.35 set in 2000.

The U.S. quartet of Emily Silver, Elizabeth Tinnon, Erin Reilly and Kara Denby took third in 3:59.93, while the Russian contingent of Kseniya Moskvina, Alena Alekseeva, Daria Belyakina and Kira Volodina finished fourth in 4:00.34 to down the Russian record of 4:01.49 set in 2006.

The Netherlands (4:00.63), South Africa (4:03.62), China (4:04.18) and Japan (4:07.17) make up the rest of the championship eight.

Event Results

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