Men’s 200 Breast
Russia’s Anton Chupkov cruised to the top time of the morning, posting a 2:08.23 to easily out-pace Great Britain’s Ross Murdoch. Murdoch, at 2:08.98, was the only other man to crack 2:09.
Japan’s Ippei Watanabe, who earlier this year became the first man to break 2:07 in the event, qualified third at 2:09.30. China’s Qin Haiyang posted a World Junior Record of 2:09.39 to qualify fourth for semis.
The USA’s Kevin Cordes (2:09.47), Italy’s Luca Pizzini (2:09.86), the USA’s Nic Fink (2:09.90) and Australia’s Matthew Wilson (2:09.98) also broke 2:10 in prelims.
China’s Feilian Mao (2:10.01) qualified ninth, while Kazakhstan’s Dimitriy Balandin, the Olympic gold medalist from 2016, took 10th in 2:10.18. Sweden’s Erik Persson (2:10.21), Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki (2:!0.38) and Germany’s Marco Koch (2:10.40) qualified 11th through 13th, respectively. Koch was the defending World Champion in the event.
Russia’s Ilya Khomenko (2:10.43), the Netherlands’ Arno Kamminga (2:11.00) and Switzerland’s Yannick Kaeser (2:11.00) rounded out the semi-final qualifiers.
Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and multi-time World Champion in the event, finished 17th, one spot out of giving the Hungarian crowd a treat of having their man in the semi-finals.
That’s a new one on me :p