Hali Flickinger Rattles Lifetime Best With 2:05.9 Flight To Semis; Defender Mireia Belmonte Scrapes In

Hali Flickinger made a statement this morning when she took the 200 ‘fly pace out on 1:00.51 at the half-way turn on the way to a dominant 2:05.96 ticket to lane 4 of the second semi this evening.

The American, who turned 25 this month, was just shy of her lifetime best, of 2:05.87, set at U.S. Nationals last year – in heats. Her test now is to convert morning speed, make it to the final and make the final faster.

At nationals last year, she came close to her heats best in 2:06.14 – and at the Olympic Games in 2016, a 2:06.67 in heats converted to a 2:07.02 in the semi.

• Flickinger’s journey has included a body transformation in the gym aimed at delivering the strength, for her 5ft 5 frame, to take on much larger rivals.

In heat three of four behind Flickinger this morning came Hungarians Boglarka Kapas, on 2:07.60, and Liliana Szilagyi, on 2:08.16, those efforts ending up second and third swiftest through.

Szilagyi, the Olympic Youth champion over 200m butterfly back in 2014, brings history to the water with heat each time she races: she is the granddaughter of Dezso Gyarmati, the only water polo player in history to win five Olympic medals, three of them gold. His granddaughter won her 2014 title in Nanjing precisely a year to the day after his passing.

Gyarmati played in the infamous “Blood in the Water” match between Hungary and the Soviet Union at the 1956 Olympics weeks after the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Team captain Gyarmati opened the scoring and set up the other three goals Hungary netted while winning 4-0 en route to the title.

Back to Gwangju, and although the last line-up watched the speed of the top three so far and knew that Svetlana Chimrova, of Russia, had led heat 2 in 2:08.26 ahead of a 2:08.33 from American Katie Drabot and a 2:08.69 from silver medallist of Budapest 2017, Germany’s Franziska Hentke, on 2:08.69, there was no obvious rush to lift the pace.

The last heat had Britain’s Alys Thomas stopping the clock at 2:08.69, Olympic and defending world champion Mireia Belmonte was back in sixth on 2:10.63, 0.1sec swift enough to secure the last slot in semis.

The top 16 qualifiers:

1		FLICKINGER	Hali	USA	2:05.96
2		KAPAS	Boglarka	HUN	2:07.60
3		SZILAGYI	Liliana	HUN	2:08.16
4		CHIMROVA	Svetlana	RUS	2:08.26
5		DRABOT	Katie	USA	2:08.33
6		HENTKE	Franziska	GER	2:08.69
6		THOMAS	Alys Margaret	GBR	2:08.69
8		STEPHENS	Laura	GBR	2:09.03
9		MONTEIRO	Ana	POR	2:09.43
10		MAKINO	Hiroko	JPN	2:09.88
11		THROSSELL	Brianna	AUS	2:09.91
12		CUSINATO	Ilaria	ITA	2:10.03
12		HASEGAWA	Suzuka	JPN	2:10.03
14		LAHTINEN	Laura	FIN	2:10.39
15		ZHU	Jiaming	CHN	2:10.54
16		BELMONTE	Mireia	ESP	2:10.63