Mykhailo Romanchuk Leads Men’s 1500 Prelims, Paltrinieri Second, Sun Yang Scratches

(140817) -- Nanjing,Aug 17,2014 (Xinhua) -- Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine celebrates in the final of Men's 400m Freestyle of Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, capital of east China?s Jiangsu Province, on Aug. 17, 2014. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua) (txt)

Photo Courtesy: Xinhua/Fei Maohua

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Men’s 1500 Free

Six of the eight qualifiers for the final of the men’s 1500 free final came out of the morning’s final heat, as Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk won a tight race with Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri to claim lane four for Sunday’s final.

Romanchuk’s time of 14:44.11 ranks second in the world behind Paltrinieri’s 14:37.08 from April, while the Italian Olympic gold medalist touched in 14:44.31.

Paltrinieri’s teammate, Gabriele Detti, qualified third in 14:50.10. Detti has already taken gold this week in the 800 free and finished third in the 400 free.

The Czech Republic’s Jan Micka touched fourth in 14:55.47, followed by Poland’s Wojciech Wojdak. Wojdak, fresh off a silver in the 800 free, was clocked at 14:57.39.

Norway’s Henrik Christiansen took sixth in 14:57.41, while Australia’s Mack Horton ended up sneaking in with the No. 7 time, at 14:59.24. Finally, Ukraine joined Italy with two swimmers in the championship final as Sergii Frolov placed eighth in 14:59.32.

Two other swimmers, South Korea’s Park Tae Hwan (14:59.44) and Egypt’s Akram Mahmoud (14:56.56), broke 15:00 but missed out on the final.

Also missing out were the two Americans, as True Sweetser placed 16th in 15:07.38, and Robert Finke was 21nd in 15:15.15.

China’s Sun Yang, the world record-holder and 2012 Olympic gold medalist in the event, did not even compete. Sun won gold in the 200 and 400 free in Budapest but appeared exhausted after his 800 free, where he missed the final. He has not competed in a major final of the 1500 since winning gold at the 2013 World Championships.

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Halim Yussuf

6 years ago

Looks like Sun Yang’s long distance dominance, is over.

Hussaini Aisha

6 years ago

Reply to Halim Yussuf

SUN YANG REIGN IN 1500M WIL NEVA B OVA.HE ONLY QUIT 2 FOCUS ON TOKYO 2020

Mika Meller

6 years ago

Impressive, easy looking swim. 28 strokes per 50m when Paltrinieri had 40.