2015 FINA World Championships, Swimming: Day 4 Prelims Live Recap

Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / MIA Rossiya Segodnya

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Everything you need to follow along with prelims live during the 2015 FINA World Championships. Hit refresh for the latest coverage.

Women’s 50 back

China’s Fu Yuanhui paced the preliminary heats of the women’s 50-meter back at the 2015 FINA World Championships.

Fu, who holds the textile best in the event with a 27.22 from 2013, put up the top time of the morning with a 27.66. She’s been faster this year with a 27.61, but she didn’t need that type of speed to top a relatively slower set of prelims.

Brazil’s Etiene Medeiros, the top-ranked swimmer in the world with a 27.38 from the Maria Lenk Trophy meet, took the second seed in 27.74, while 100 back victory Emily Seebohm of Australia earned the third seed in 27.75.

China’s Liu Xiang (27.79), Denmark’s Mie Nielsen (27.89) and Great Britain’s Lauren Quigley (27.94) also cleared 28 seconds to make the top seven.

France’s Beryl Gastaldello (28.02), Australia’s Madison Wilson (28.02), Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry (28.15), Russia’s Anastasia Fesikova (28.15), Italy’s Elena Gemo (28.18), Greece’s Theodora Drakou (28.35), Poland’s Aleksandra Urbanczyk (28.36), Croatia’s Sanja Jovanovic (28.40), France’s Mathilde Cini (28.46) and Russia’s Daria Ustinova (28.52) closed out the rest of the semifinal field.

USA’s Rachel Bootsma, one of the best sprint backstrokers in the world, wound up scratching the event after battling an illness since she first arrived in Kazan earlier this week.

Men’s 100 free

China’s Ning Zetao moved into the top 5 in the world in the men’s 100-meter free during prelims at the 2015 FINA World Championships.

Ning clocked a top time of 48.11 to tie Federico Grabich for fourth in the world rankings as part of what proved to be a strong morning of swims.

Australia’s Cameron McEvoy, ranked third in world with a 48.06, qualified second in 48.33. Russia’s Vlad Morozov, top-ranked in the world with a 47.98, took the third seed in 48.46.

Grabich checked in with a fourth-seeded 48.48, while France’s Jeremy Stravius put up a fifth-seeded time of 48.52.

Belgium’s Pieter Timmers (48.58), The Netherlands’ Sebastiaan Verschuren (48.61) and USA’s Nathan Adrian (48.61) rounded out the top eight.

Russia’s Alexander Sukhorukov (48.64) and France’s Fabien Gilot (48.73) qualified ninth and 10th.

Canada’s Santo Condorelli, who is tied with Morozov with a top-ranked 47.98 from the Pan Am games, qualified 11th in 48.77.

Brazil’s Matheus Santana (48.81), Italy’s Marco Orsi (48.82), Japan’s Shinri Shioura (48.84), Brazil’s Marcelo Chierighini (48.92) and Poland’s Pawel Korzeniowski (48.93) also cleared 49 seconds to make the semis.

Notably, USA’s Jimmy Feigen missed semis with a 20th-place time of 49.12.

Women’s 200 fly

China’s Zhang Yufei downed the World Junior Record in the women’s 200-meter fly at the 2015 FINA World Championships.

Zhang clocked in with a time of 2:06.92 for the top seed out of prelims. That swim eclipsed Katie McLaughlin’s World Junior Record of 2:07.08 set at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships.

That performance also moved Zhang to fifth in the world rankings in the event this season. That’s also the third straight event this morning in which China grabbed the top seed.

USA’s McLaughlin chased down the second seed in 2:07.32 to move to seventh in the world.

Hungary’s Liliana Szilagyi snared third in 2:07.46 with USA’s Cammile Adams posting a fourth-seeded 2:07.96. Japan’s Natsumi Hoshi rounded out the 2:07s with a fifth-seeded 2:07.97.

Katinka Hosszu of Hungary, already having broken an infamous world record in the 200-meter IM, picked up the sixth seed in 2:08.07.

Germany’s Franziska Hentke (2:08.31) and France’s Lara Grangeon (2:08.54) qualified seventh and eighth overall.

Australia’s Madeline Groves (2:08.65), China’s Zhou Yilin (2:08.76), Canada’s Audrey Lacroix (2:08.79), Australia’s Brianna Throssell (2:09.16), Great Britain’s Hannah Miley (2:09.44), South Korea’s Park Jinyoung (2:09.62), Slovenia’s Anja Klinar (2:09.70) and Brazil’s Joanna Maranhao-Melo (2:09.77) comprise the rest of the semifinal field.

With just four heats of the 200-meter fly this morning, the top guns all knew they didn’t need much to make it into the semifinals. So, the semifinals could see a massive change compared to the times put up this morning.

Men’s 200 IM

USA’s Ryan Lochte unleashed an easy speed top-seeded effort in the men’s 200-meter IM during prelims at the 2015 FINA World Championships.

Lochte cranked out a top time of 1:57.90 this morning, just off his fourth-ranked 1:57.20 from the Arena Pro Swim Series.

Lochte, who is looking to take advantage of the absence of reigning Swimming World World Swimmer of the Year Kosuke Hagino, shut it down the final 20 meters and should have much more in the tank.

Great Britain’s Dan Wallace earned the second seed in 1:58.28 to move into the top 10 in the world.

China’s Wang Shun qualified third in 1:58.33 with USA’s Conor Dwyer posted a fourth-seeded 1:58.63.

Greece’s Andreas Vazaios (1:58.92) and Brazil’s Henrique Rodrigues (1:58.95) also cleared 1:59 to qualify fifth and sixth.

Japan’s Daiya Seto (1:59.11) and Brazil’s Thiago Pereira (1:59.18) earned seventh and eighth.

Great Britain’s Roberto Pavoni (1:59.29), Switzerland’s Jeremy Desplanches (1:59.46), Portugal’s Diogo Carvalho (1:59.61), Sweden’s Simon Sjodin (1:59.64), Australia’s Thomas Fraser-Holmes (1:59.96), Israel’s Yakov Toumarkin (1:59.97), Poland’s Marcin Cieslak (1:59.99) and Egypt’s Mohamed Hussein (2:00.22) snared the rest of the semifinal spots.

Mixed 400 medley relay

Ryan Murphy led Team USA to a monster world record in the mixed 400-meter medley relay during prelims at the 2015 FINA World Championships.

In heat 2, the Russian foursome of Daria Ustinova (59.89), Kirill Prigoda (59.99), Daniil Pakhomov (51.52) and Veronika Popova (54.47) set a time of 3:45.87 to break Australia’s world record of 3:46.52 from the BHP Aquatic Super Series.

Team USA, however, followed in heat 3 to smash Russia’s short-lived world record as Murphy (52.18), Kevin Cordes (58.33), Kendyl Stewart (57.78) and Lia Neal (54.04) clocked a top time of 3:42.33.

Comparative Splits

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Murphy’s 100-meter back leadoff is well ahead of the 52.40 Mitch Larkin used to win the individual world title in that event last night, and is .01 faster than Aaron Peirsol’s meet record of 52.19 from 2009. Murphy’s time will not stand as the meet mark, however, as individual records cannot fall during mixed events.

The swim vaulted Murphy into fourth all time in the 100-meter back’s history.

All Time 100 Back

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Meanwhile, Great Britain (3:44.39), Germany (3:45.39), Italy (3:46.03), China (3:47.48), Hungary (3:49.50) and Canada (3:49.60) also made the championship finale.

2015 FINA World Championships, Swimming: Day 4 Prelims – Results

SCHEDULED EVENTS

Women’s 50 back
Men’s 100 free
Women’s 200 fly
Men’s 200 IM
Mixed 400 medley relay

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