2019 FINA World Junior Championships Day 1 Prelims: Ceccon, Zombori Set Meet Records

Thomas CECCON ITA Copenhagen 11-12-2017 Royal Arena LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships - Campionati Europei nuoto vasca corta Foto Andrea Staccioli / Insidefoto / Deepbluemedia

Thomas Ceccon got a top seed at the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships began on Tuesday in Budapest. Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Insidefoto / Deepbluemedia

World Junior Swimming Championships (Gabor Zombori, Thomas Ceccon)

Budapest, Day 1 Prelims

Hungary’s Gabor Zombori, racing in his nation’s capital, and Italy’s Thomas Ceccon got the FINA World Junior showcase off to a fast start with meet records in their respective events.

Zombori thundered out a 3:46.97 in the 400m freestyle to take down the previous championship record held by Australia’s Mack Horton (3:47.12), who went on to be Olympic champion in 2016.

Ceccon look down the meet mark in the 100m backstroke with a 54.07 that cracked the 54.27 standard established by Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez in 2017.

The men’s 400 free, women’s 400 IM, men’s 100 breast, women’s 100 back, women’s 50 breast made up the solo program, while the men’s 4×100 free relay and the women’s 4×200 free relay concluded the first morning of racing.

Men’s 400 Free

World Record: Paul Biedermann, Germany (3:40.07)
Meet Record: Mack Horton, Australia (3:47.12)
World Junior Record: Mack Horton, Australia (3:44.60)
Top Entry: Jake Mitchell, USA (3:48.09)

Hungary’s Gabor Zombori got the meet off to a fast start with his performance in the 400 free.

Zombori broke the meet record by finishing the race in 3:46.97. The old mark was set by Australia’s Mack Horton (3:47.12).

The Hungarian will have a chance at breaking the junior record set by Horton in the finals. His first split was 28.20 and closed with a 27.46 split to earn the top spot. Zombori, whose best was a 3:51.21, also took down the Hungarian 18 and under mark of that had stood to World 200 ‘fly champion Kristof Milak at 3:48.08.

The meet’s top entry was USA’s Jake Mitchell. He took the second seed in the event in 3:49.43, setting up an interesting showdown for the finals.

Australia’s Thomas Neill took the third seed in 3:49.88 as the only other swimmer in the field to break 3:50.

Bulgaria’s Yordan Yanchev took the fourth seed in 3:50.76, followed by USA’s Jake Magahey (3:51.38), Russia’s Aleksandr Egorov (3:51.50), Greece’s Konstantinos Engelzakis (3:51.70) and Russia’s Nikita Danilov (3:51.75).

Screen Shot 2019-08-20 at 4.31.40 AM

Women’s 50 Breast

World Record: Lilly King, USA (29.40)
Meet Record: Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania (29.86)
World Junior Record: Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania (29.86)
Top Entry: Benedetta Pilato (29.98)

Italy’s teen sensation Benedetta Pilato came in with the top entry time of 29.98 and was extremely close to that during the prelims of the women’s 50 breast.

Pilato took the top seed in 30.35 and will look to top her own entry time as well as the junior record of 29.86 in the semifinals and finals.

Great Britain’s Kayla van der Merwe took the second seed in 31.13, followed by USA’s Kaitlyn Dobler, who finished in 31.24 — just a hundredth of a second ahead of Lithuania’s Kotryna Teterevkova (31.25).

USA’s Ellie Andrews took the fifth seed heading into semifinals in 31.31, while Russia’s Evgeniia Chikunova (31.43), South Africa’s Lara van Niekerk (31.51) and Denmark’s Thea Blomsterberg (31.82) rounded out the top eight.

In the swim-off for the last place in semis this evening, Bailey Herbert pipped Nina Stanisavljevic 31.98 to 32.08.

Screen Shot 2019-08-20 at 4.43.08 AM

Men’s 100 Back

World Record: Ryan Murphy, USA (51.85)
Meet Record: Hugo Gonzalez, Spain (54.27)
World Junior Record: Kliment Kolesnikov, Russia (52.53)
Top Entry: Thomas Ceccon, Italy (53.60)

Make it two-for-two with meet records for the men.

Italy’s Thomas Ceccon broke the meet record in the 100 back, taking the top seed in 54.07, breaking the championship record set by Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez (54.27) in 2017.

Ceccon started with an extremely fast split of 26.23 before closing with a 27.84 to take the top seed.

Team USA took the next two spots as Will Grant took the second seed in 54.39 to finish ahead of teammate Wyatt Davis (54.56).

Russia’s Nikolay Zuev took the fourth seed in 54.80, followed by Canada’s Tyler Wall (54.89) and Cole Pratt (55.07). France’s Mewen Tomac (55.16) and India’s Srihari Nataraj (55.18) rounded out the top eight qualifiers for the semifinals.

Screen Shot 2019-08-20 at 5.06.06 AM

Women’s 400 IM

World Record: Katinka Hosszu, Hungary (4:26.36)
Meet Record: Rosie Rudin, Great Britain (4:39.01)
World Junior Record: Rosie Rudin, Great Britain (4:39.01)
Top Entry: Alba Vazquez Ruiz, Spain (4:40.64)

Spain’s Alba Vazquez Ruiz hung on to her top entry time to take the top seed in the 400 IM in 4:43.17 to qualify for finals.

Her opening leg of 1:04.13 was enough to give her some separation.

But others were right on her heels. Great Britain’s Michaella Glenister was just a tenth of a second behind in 4:43.27, the only other in the field to break 4:44.

USA’s Isabel Gormley took the third seed in 4:44.01 after a 1:03.88 opening leg. USA teammate Grace Sheble was just behind in 4:44.34.

The fifth seed went to Hungary’s Viktoria Mihalyvari-Farkas (4:44.76), followed by compatriot Eszter Szabo-Feltothy (4:45.45), Spain’s Paula Juste Sanchez (4:46.43) and Japan’s Mei Ishihara (4:47.06).

Screen Shot 2019-08-20 at 5.40.08 AM

Men’s 100 Breast

World Record: Adam Peaty, Great Britain (56.88)
Meet Record: Nicolo Martinenghi, Italy (59.01)
World Junior Record: Nicolo Martinenghi, Italy (59.01)
Top Entry: Alexander Zhigalov, Russia (1:00.75)

The U.S. took the top two seeds during the men’s 100 breast prelims, the only two swimmers to break 1:01 in the event during the session.

Kevin Houseman took the top seed in 1:00.52, just ahead of compatriot Josh Matheny, who finished in 1:00.66.

Houseman was out in 28.27 and came home in 32.25 just ahead of Matheny (28.38, 32.28) in both splits.

Great Britain’s Archie Goodburn took the third seed (1:01.01) ahead of Canada’s Gabe Mastromatteo (1:01.25) and Japan’s Shoma Sato (1:01.31) and Yuta Arai (1:01.37).

Turkey’s Demirkan Demir (1:01.69) and Russia’s Vladislav Gerasimenko (1:01.80) rounded out the top eight.

Screen Shot 2019-08-20 at 5.56.40 AM

Women’s 100 Back

World Record: Regan Smith, USA (57.57)
Meet Record: Regan Smith, USA (59.11)
World Junior Record: Regan Smith, USA (57.57)
Top Entry: Daria Vaskina, Russia (59.46)

Regan Smith has taken the 100 back by storm, but though she is a junior, she is not at this meet after breaking the world record at the world championships.

There are still plenty of fast swimmers in the event, led by Canada’s Jade Hannah, who broke a minute, taking the top seed in 59.91.

Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan took the second spot in 1:00.53 to finish just ahead of Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko (1:00.58).

USA’s Claire Curzan (1:00.65) and Annabel Crush (1:01.21) followed with the fourth and fifth seed, respectively.

Russia’s Daria Vaskina had the top entry time coming into the meet in 59.46. She took the sixth seed in 1:01.92, looking to duplicate her top time in the semifinals and finals.

There was a tie for the seventh seed as Poland’s Zuzanna Herasimowicz and Portugal’s Rafaela Azevedo each swam the race in 1:02.09 to finish ahead of Austria’s Lena Grabowski (1:02.24).

Screen Shot 2019-08-20 at 6.19.39 AM

Men’s 4x100m freestyle

The United States led the way into the final with a solid 3:18.27 combination, courtesy of Jack Alexy (50.26), Matt Brownstead (49.85), Jack Armstrong (49.55) and Gianluca Urlando, who split 48.61.

At that race, he was not the swiftest homecomer: Russia’s quartet was made up of three 50sec efforts and a 48.35 on the end from Andrei Minakov, for a 3:18.88, the third team through Italy, on 3:19.73, with three 49sec swims in the mix, including a 49.72 lead-off from Federico Burdisso, the ‘fly ace whose 1:54.39 is the closest thing to Urlando’s pace-setting 1:53.84 going into the 200m butterfly on the last day of racing come Sunday.

Also through to the final this evening: Brazil (3:20.63), Canada (3:21.49), Australia (3:21.55), Ukraine (3:22.39) and Hungary (3:23.55), Gabor Zombori, the meet-record setter in the 400m freestyle on 3:46.97 at the start of the session, on 49.90 to ensure the Hungarians got past Singapore to grasp the last place in the showdown.

Mx100freeBuda

Women’s 4x200m freestyle

The first morning session came to a close with the United States at the helm of pace, the clocked stopped at 8:01.10 in heat 1 by Lillie Nordmann, Erin Gemmell, Ashley Strouse and Justina Kozan.

In the second heat, Australians Michaela Ryan, Gabriella Peiniger, Rebecca Jacobson and Lani Pallister combined for an 8:02.79 qualification to lane 5 in the final besides the Americans, the other side of whom will be the Canadian quartet, home in 8:06.70 this morning.

Also through to the final: Germany (8:07.02), whose Maya Tobehn produced the swiftest split of the heats, on 1:58.91; Hungary (8:07.32); Spain (8:07.40); Russia (8:08.34); and Poland (8:10.71). China, a nation with four teenagers that could take on the world in senior waters, fielded a quartet that finished 13th on 8:23.67, the swiftest effort a 2:02.49, the slowest a 2:10.80, a great many fastest juniors clearly not in Budapest for the FINA youth showcase.

W4x200freeBuda

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use