FINA World Short Course Championships: Day Two Prelims

Lock in your Fantasy Swimming picks throughout the week as part of the World Short Course Championships festivities!

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, December 15. THE second day of prelims at the FINA World Short Course Championships in Dubai produced quite a few national records, including a slew of American standards.

Women's 100 free
USA's Natalie Coughlin downed the ratified American record in the event with a top-seeded time of 52.27. That swim eclipsed the 52.50 set by Dana Vollmer back in October during the Berlin stop of the World Cup. She failed to clear the un-ratified top time by an American of 52.16 clocked by Vollmer at the Duel in the Pool last year. USA Swimming elected not to ratify any times clocked in a techsuit after USA Swimming's techsuit ban went into place domestically in Oct. 2009, even for swims done legally prior to FINA's Jan. 1, 2010 worldwide ban went into place. Coughlin's time moved her to third in the world rankings this year behind Ranomi Kromowidjojo (51.44) and Femke Heemskerk (51.96).

Kromowidjojo finished second in qualifying in 52.39, while Vollmer took third in 52.58. Heemskerk (52.62), Bahamas' Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace (52.85), Canada's Victoria Poon (53.14), Australia's Marieke Guehrer (53.23) and Denmark's Jeanette Ottesen (53.31) qualified fourth through eighth.

France's Camille Muffat (53.32), China's Li Zhesi (53.33), Germany's Daniela Schreiber (53.50), Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom (53.53), Australia's Emma McKeon (53.59), Germany's Silke Lippok (53.85), Canada's Genevieve Saumur (53.89) and Russia's Margarita Nesterova (53.94) also made semis.

Men's 400 IM
Ryan Lochte demolished both the ratified and un-ratified top times by an American in the distance medley with a sterling time of 4:01.76. That swim beat the ratified record of 4:02.49 he set in Shanghai in 2006, while also beating the 4:02.02 Tyler Clary posted last year in a techsuit that was not ratified. Lochte's 4:02.49 from Shanghai had stood as the meet record until this morning. Lochte far surpassed the top-ranked time of 4:02.82 set by Thiago Pereira in Singapore during the World Cup. Lochte improved to seventh in the all-time rankings in the event with the performance.

Tunisia's Ous Mellouli grabbed a strong second-seeded time of 4:02.27 to move to second in the rankings, and just off the African record of 4:02.18 set by Chad Le Clos in Berlin last year. Clary picked up the third seed with a 4:03.02, while Le Clos of South Africa snatched fourth in 4:03.81.

Hungary's David Verraszto (4:04.11) and Laszlo Cseh (4:04.44) qualified fifth and sixth , while Israel's Gal Nevo (4:06.78) and Russia's Alexander Tikhonov (4:06.96) also earned transfer spots into the finale.

Women's 50 fly
Sweden's Therese Alshammar tore through the sprint fly prelims with a time of 25.23. That swim came up just short of her top-ranked effort of 25.21 from the Swedish Short Course Championships earlier this month. Alshammar wiped out Felicity Galvez's meet record of 25.32 set in 2008. Galvez raced to second in 25.41 for third in the rankings, while The Netherlands' Inge Dekker picked up third in 25.67.

Estonia's Triin Aljand (25.69), USA's Christine Magnuson (25.76), Denmark's Jeanette Ottesen (25.77), USA's Dana Vollmer (25.83) and The Netherlands' Hinkelien Schreuder (25.97) snatched fourth through eighth.

Israel's Amit Ivry (26.17), China's Lu Ying (26.22), Australia's Marieke Guehrer (26.26), France's Melanie Henique (26.29), Hong Kong's Hang Yu Sze (26.33), Norway's Ingvild Snildal (26.36), Bahamas' Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace (26.39) and Canada's Katerine Savard (26.48) also pocketed semifinal spots.

Men's 50 free
Brazil's Cesar Cielo cruised to the top seed with a qualifying time of 21.06. That swim came up short of his top-ranked effort of 20.80 set at the Jose Finkel Trophy Meet in September. USA's Nathan Adrian threw down a second-seeded time of 21.11, which lowered the ratified American record of 21.18 set by Nick Brunelli in 2005. Adrian has been faster with an un-ratified top American time of 20.71 from the Duel in the Pool last year. France's Fred Bousquet clocked a third-seeded time of 21.12, but has a 20.89 to his name as a season best this year for the second spot in the world rankings.

Trinidad's George Bovell III (21.23), Germany's Steffen Deibler (21.38), Sweden's Stefen Nystrand (21.41), Russia's Sergey Fesikov (21.43), France's Alain Bernard (21.43) and USA's Josh Schneider (21.43) were among the top nine.

Australia's Kyle Richardson (21.45), Australia's Matthew Abood (21.48), Ukraine's Andrii Govorov (21.61), Italy's Marco Orsi (21.66), Japan's Masayuki Kishida (21.67), South Africa's Roland Schoeman (21.70) and Brazil's Nicholas Santos (21.71) also made semis.

Women's 100 IM
USA's Ariana Kukors turned in the top-ranked time in the world with a smoking fast time of 59.14. That effort beat the top-ranked 59.29s set by Emily Seebohm and Hinkelien Schreuder earlier this year. Kukors also set the meet record, downing the long-standing 1999 mark of 59.30 set by Jenny Thompson in Hong Kong.

Hungary's Evelyn Verraszto tied with Estonia's Jane Trepp for second with matching 1:00.01s. Germany's Theresa Michalak (1:00.14), Finland's Hanna-Maria Seppala (1:00.15), Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom (1:00.33), The Netherlands' Hinkelien Schreuder (1:00.4) and USA's Missy Franklin (1:00.46) qualified fourth through eighth.

China's Liu Jing (1:00.57), Australia's Kotuku Ngawati (1:00.61), Belarus' Svetlana Khokhlova (1:00.73), Belarus' Aleksandra Gerasimenya (1:00.83), Poland's Aleksandra Urbanczyk (1:01.08), Italy's Francesca Segat (1:01.12), Russia's Ekaterina Andreeva (1:01.13) and Norway's Katharina Stiberg (1:01.37) earned the rest of the lanes in the semifinal rounds.

Men's 800 free relay
The United States' David Walters (1:44.70), Garrett Weber-Gale (1:43.38), Charles Houchin (1:44.28) and Ricky Berens (1:44.17) cruised to the top seed with a scorching time of 6:56.53. That effort crushed the previous American record of 7:00.19 set in 2008.

Russia's Alexander Sukhorukov, Evgeny Lagunov, Mikhail Polishchuk and Danila Izotov placed second in 6:57.48 to beat the Russian record of 7:01.72 set in 2008. Germany's Paul Biedermann, Stefan Herbst, Ben Starke and Markus Deibler wound up third in 6:59.83

France (7:00.58), Australia (7:02.31), China (7:03.30), Czech Republic (7:05.15) and Brazil (7:06.20) grabbed the rest of the finale spots.

Women's 800 free slower seeds
China's Chen Qian clocked the fastest time out of the early seeds with a time of 8:16.11. That swim put her fourth in the world rankings. USA's Chloe Sutton (8:16.54) and France's Coralie Balmy (8:16.73) also clocked 8:16s to move to fifth and sixth in the rankings for the top times heading into the swiftest heat.

Day Two Prelims Results

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