Nicolo Martinenghi, Regan Smith Set Meet Records on Day 1 of World Juniors

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Photo Courtesy: SIPA USA

The 2017 FINA World Junior Championships will take place in Indianapolis, Ind. between August 23-28. Day one featured four men’s preliminaries and three women’s.

Hungary’s Akos Kalmar came in as the top seed in the 400 freestyle, but American Trey Freeman III took top honors this time around. Ireland’s Conor Ferguson won a tight 100 backstroke prelim, while Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi set the first meet record of the week in the 100 breast.

In the women’ts events, USA’s Emily Weiss stole the show as the only swimmer to dip under 31 seconds in the 50 breast prelims. Japan’s Miku Kojima maintained her top seed in the 400 IM, while USA’s Regan Smith swam a blistering 59.52 100 backstroke to break a meet record of her own.

FULL RESULTS FROM DAY 1 PRELIMS CAN BE FOUND HERE

Schedule of Events:

Men’s 400 Freestyle
Women’s 50 Breaststroke
Men’s 100 Backstroke
Women’s 400 IM
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
Women’s 100 Backstroke
Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay
Women’s 800 Free Relay

Men’s 400 Freestyle

The American men kicked things off to a great start for the USA, winning both the sixth and seventh heats for the first and third seeds overall. Trey Freeman III claimed the overall top time of 3:51.32 after a close battle with Francisco Arevalo Rubio of Spain (3:52.11). South Africa’s Jarryd Baxter (3:53.01) and Australia’s Jacob Vincent (3:53.18) also qualified for the final out of heat seven.

USA’s Andrew Abruzzo stole the third seed in 3:52.20 and was followed closely in heat six by Hungary’s Balazs Hollo (3:52.41), Poland’s Antoni Kaluzynski (3:52.45) and Australia’s Nathan Robinson (3:52.87). Abruzzo was fourth at the 350 mark, but blasted a 27.85, the fastest of anyone in the field, on the final 50.

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Women’s 50 Breast

USA’s Emily Weiss kept the momentum going by blasting a 30.91 50 breast out of heat six. Canada’s Faith Knelson posted a best time of 31.16 out of the heat prior to claim the second seed, while Ireland’s Mona McSharry (31.41) and USA’s Zoe Bartel (31.59) took the third and fourth seeds out of heat seven.

Great Britain’s Annabel Guy-Johnson (31.74), Slovakia’s Tara Vovk (31.76), Australia’s Chelsea Hodges (31.78) and Poland’s Weronika Hallman (31.87) rounded out the top eight qualifiers while it took a 32.59 from Emina Pasukan of Bosnia and Herzegovina to qualify for the semifinals.

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Men’s 100 Backstroke

Ireland’s Conor Ferguson kept the Irish backstroke men on top after Shane Ryan won gold in the 50 back in Taipei earlier today. His prelim swim of 54.95 gave him the top seed by just .01, exactly how much Ryan won by as well. Romania’s Daniel Martin was right behind in 54.96 out of heat seven. Russia’s Nikita Tretyakov was third in 55.14 while Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez had a the fastest second 50 in the field of 28.24 to help him earn the fourth position in 55.26. Coming in as the top seed, it is likely that Gonzalez has a lot more left in the tank for the semis and final.

Poland’s Kacper Stowkowski (55.42), USA duo Nicolas Albiero (55.44) and Drew Kibler (55.51) and Great Britain’s Nicholas Pyle (55.72) placed fifth through eighth. Lithuania’s Rokas Juozelskis claimed the sixteenth position in 56.75.

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Women’s 400 IM

Miku Kojima of Japan narrowly claimed the top seed in the 400 IM with a time of 4:44.75. Her breaststroke split set her apart from second-place Anja Crevar of Serbia who finished in 4:45.08. Christin Rockway of USA was not far behind with a 4:46.23. Also of Japan, Anna Sasaki had one of the faster breaststroke splits as well to help her earn the fourth spot in 4:46.31.

USA’s Madison Homovich placed fifth with the fastest backstroke split and a 4:46.67 overall, while Spain’s Laia Fernandez blasted a 1:18.51 third leg to power her to sixth in 4:47.04. Rounding out the final heat will be France’s Cyrielle Duhamel (4:48.32) and Russia’s Irina Krivonogova (4:49.21).

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Men’s 100 Breaststroke

Nicolo Martinenghi of Italy broke the first meet record of the week in his prelims swim of the 100 breast. The only swimmer to break 1:00, Martinenghi raced to a 59.53 for the win. Reece Whitley led a strong American effort with a 1:00.41 for the second seed. Teammate Michael Andrew was fourth in 1:00.91. Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook split the Americans with a 1:00.75. His teammate, David Schlicht, qualified fourteenth with a 1:02.37 out of heat one.

Russia’s Evgenii Somov (1:01.27), Italy’s Alessandro Pinzuti (1:01.50), Germany’s Wassili Kuhn (1:01.61) and South Africa’s Michael Houlie (1:01.70) will round out the top eight qualifiers while Japan’s Ikuma Osaki took the sixteenth spot in 1:02.42.

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Women’s 100 Back

USA’s Regan Smith answered Martinenghi’s meet record with one of her own. Her 59.52 out of heat six was enough to out-race Canada’s Taylor Ruck (59.64) and break the previous meet record set in 2015. Teammate Jade Hannah earned the fourth spot in 1:00.21 while American Grace Ariola was fifth in 1:00.67. Japan’s Natsumi Sakai broke up the North American contingent with her third-place swim of 1:00.11

Smith’s strong front 50 gave her the advantage this time around as she was the only swimmer out under 29 seconds. Ruck had the best closing speed in 30.48.

Great Britain duo Cassie Wild (1:00.84) and Anna Maine (1:01.30) placed sixth and eighth while Russia’s Polina Egorova was seventh in 1:01.19. Hungary’s Laura Ilyes rounded out the semifinal qualifiers in 1:02.86.

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Men’s 400 Free Relay

The Brazilian team of Lucas Peixoto, Breno Correia, Luiz Gustavo Borges and Rodolfo Moreira took control of the 400 free relay out of the second heat. Correia was the lone swimmer out of all three heats to split under 40, setting up the Brazilians for victory early on. Germany’s team of Johannes Hintze, Paul Reither, Peter Varjasi and Josha Salchow combined for second place in 3:19.93.

Russia led a tight battle for third in 3:20.07. Australia (3:20.19), Poland (3:20.35), Hungary (3:20.86), USA (3:20.91) and Italy (3:22.01) will round out the final.

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Women’s 800 Free Relay

Led by Olympic Gold Medalist Penny Oleksiak and teammate Kayla Sanchez, Canada cruised to the top seed in the 800 free relay. Joined by Mabel Zavaros and Rebecca Smith, the quartet finished in 8:03.10. Leah Braswell, Ella Risitc, Diana Dunn and Kelly Pash combined to win heat two and snag the second seed for USA in 8:06.67.

Russia (8:07.38), Japan (8:09.27), Hungary (8:09.31), Spain (8:10.13), Germany (8:11.80), Italy (8:14.90) will also compete in the final.

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