Russia’s Three Golds Highlights Night Six of FINA World Championships: Full Recap

by Andy Ross

28 July 2017, 11:04am

The sixth night of swimming from the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest featured five very exciting finals as Russia walked away with three total gold medals while the United States and Great Britain each picked up one. The Russians had huge performances from Evgeny Rylov, Anton Chupkov and Yulia Efimova winning gold in their events. The Russians also picked up a silver in the men’s 4×200 free relay.

The Americans started the night with a huge swim out of Simone Manuel in the women’s 100 free as she bested world record holder Sarah Sjostrom in the final breaking the American Record in the process. The Americans also picked up medals from Ryan Murphy, Jacob Pebley, Bethany Galat and the men’s 4×200 free relay on night six.

Great Britain finished the night with a gold in the men’s 4×200 free relay thanks to massive splits from Duncan Scott and James Guy on the back end.

Results

Tonight’s events:

• Women’s 100 Free
• Men’s 200 Back
• Women’s 200 Back (SF)
• Men’s 50 Free (SF)
• Women’s 200 Breast
• Men’s 100 Fly (SF)
• Women’s 50 Fly (SF)
• Men’s 200 Breast
• Men’s 4×200 Free Relay

Women’s 100 Free

In a similar fashion to last summer, Simone Manuel ran down the World Record holder on the last 25 of the 100 free final. Last year it was Cate Campbell, this time it was Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden. Manuel split a 27.06 to run down Sjostrom to win the gold medal at 52.27 for a new American Record. Sjostrom was second at 52.31 and Denmark’s Pernille Blume was third at 52.69.

USA’s Mallory Comerford (52.77), Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo (52.78), Canada’s Penny Oleksiak (52.94), Australia’s Bronte Campbell (53.18) and Australia’s Emma McKeon (53.21) also competed in the stacked A-final that included five swimmers who had won gold individually at the Olympics.

This is the United States’ third overall gold medal in the 100 free on the women’s side and the first since 1998. Manuel joins Nicole Haislett (1991) and Jenny Thompson (1998) as winners in the event at the World Championships for the Americans.

Men’s 200 Back

Russia’s Evgeny Rylov took the 200 back race out hard on Friday night at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest and held on for his first individual gold medal at a major international meet. Rylov held off the reigning Olympic champion in Ryan Murphy of the United States.

Rylov was under Aaron Peirsol’s WR pace at 100 meters but eventually fell off the pace. Rylov won the gold with a 1:53.61 to set a new European record. Murphy won the silver with a 1:54.21 ahead of fellow American Jacob Pebley in bronze at 1:55.06.

Rylov was the 2014 Youth Olympic champion so he has had a lot of hype around him the last few years and he is showing that potential here in Budapest as this is his first gold medal at a senior meet.

Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov (1:55.14) broke a new World Junior record that he held from the semi-finals at 1:55.15. China’s Xu Jiayu (1:55.26), Hungary’s Peter Bernek (1:55.58), Japan’s Ryosuke Irie (1:56.35) and Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys (1:56.96) also competed in the championship final.

This is Russia’s second overall gold medal in the men’s 200 backstroke at the Worlds as Rylov joins Vladimir Selkov (1994) as the only Russian gold medalists in this event. Rylov was bronze at the 2016 Olympics and the 2015 Worlds in this event.

Women’s 200 Back (SF)

Defending World Champion Emily Seebohm of Australia had a strong swim in the semi-finals of the 200 backstroke as she leads a tight field into Saturday’s final. Seebohm swam a 2:05.81 to tie her gold medal winning time from Kazan in 2015. Seebohm leads Canada’s Kylie Masse (2:05.97) and USA’s Kathleen Baker (2:06.66) into the final tomorrow.

Russia’s Daria Ustinova (2:07.08), USA’s Regan Smith (2:07.19), Australia’s Kaylee McKeown (2:07.40), Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu (2:07.51) and Canada’s Hilary Caldwell (2:07.64) will also swim in the championship final.

Smith broke the World Junior record with her 2:07.19 surpassing Ustinova’s 2:07.43 from 2015 and she will be swimming in her first major championship final.

This is a very fast final as it took a 2:07.54 to get the bronze medal in Rio last summer and that barely squeaks into tonight’s final.

Men’s 50 Free (SF)

Caeleb Dressel has been the headline star of the 2017 FINA World Championships for the United States team this week. Dressel broke another American record at the meet as he swam a 21.29 in the 50 free to break Nathan Adrian’s 21.37 from the 2015 Worlds.

Dressel will swim on Saturday as the top seed in the 50 free ahead of Russia’s Vlad Morozov (21.45). Dressel could be the first American to win the 50 at the World Championships since Ben Wildman-Tobriner won ten years ago in 2007. He also has a chance to be the first man to win the 50 and the 100 free at the same Worlds since Cesar Cielo won them both in 2009.

Britain’s Ben Proud (21.60), Brazil’s Bruno Fratus (21.60), Greece’s Kristian Gkolomeev (21.71), Finland’s Ari-Pekka Liukkonen (21.71), Poland’s Pawel Juraszek (21.74) and Brazil’s Cielo (21.77) will also swim in Saturday’s championship final.

Adrian missed the final as he finished in 10th place with a 21.83. Australia’s Cameron McEvoy also missed the final as he was ninth at 21.81.

Women’s 200 Breast

Russian Yulia Efimova used another stellar back half to win the gold medal in the 200 breaststroke. Efimova swam a 1:11.15 on her second 100 to win her second 200 breast gold medal at the FINA World Championships. Efimova last won the event at the 2013 Worlds in Barcelona.

American Bethany Galat had the swim of her life as she finished in the silver medal position with a 2:21.77 using a very good back half as well. Galat was 1:12.38 on her second 100 after she was seventh after the first 100. China’s Shi Jinglin finished with the bronze at 2:21.93 just ahead of American Lilly King (2:22.11) who finished in fourth.

Canada’s Kierra Smith (2:22.23), Great Britain’s Molly Renshaw (2:22.96), Australia’s Taylor McKeown (2:23.06) and Spain’s Jessica Vall (2:23.29) also competed in the championship final.

Men’s 100 Fly (SF)

Caeleb Dressel continues to be on a roll at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest. He swam the fastest time of the semi-finals earlier in the session in the 50 free and returned about 30 minutes later to swim the fastest time again in the 100 fly. He will be the top seed in both of those events on Saturday night. Dressel swam a 50.07 to move past his own textile best of 50.08. Only two swimmers have broken 50 seconds in the event in Michael Phelps (49.82) and Milorad Cavic (49.95).

Dressel leads a trio of swimmers that swum under 51 seconds in Britain’s James Guy (50.67), Hungary’s Krisztof Milak (50.77) and Singapore’s Joseph Schooling (50.78). Milak’s time was a world junior record, breaking his own WJR from this morning at 51.23.

France’s Mehdy Metella (51.06), Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh (51.16), China’s Li Zhuhao (51.29) and Australia’s Grant Irvine (51.31) will swim in the championship final.

USA’s Tim Phillips (51.41, 9th) and South Africa’s Chad Le Clos (51.48, 12th) both miss the final. This is especially shocking for Le Clos as he is the two-time defending World champion in this event.

Women’s 50 Fly (SF)

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom swam a 25.30 in the semi-finals of the women’s 50 fly as she will be the top seed in Saturday’s final at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest. Sjostrom leads American Kelsi Worrell (25.57) and France’s Melanie Henique (25.63). Sjostrom has a chance to win her third medal of the meet after winning gold in the 100 fly and silver in the 100 free.

Canada’s Penny Oleksiak (25.66), Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo (25.67), Germany’s Aliena Schmidtke (25.68), Belgium’s Kimberly Buys (25.70) and Egypt’s Farida Osman (25.73) will also swim in the championship final. Osman broke the African Record with that swim.

Men’s 200 Breast

The Russians are on fire on the sixth night of swimming at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest. Anton Chupkov won the 200 breast final joining Yulia Efimova and Evgeny Rylov as Russian gold medalists on Friday night. Chupkov used another quick last 50 to capture his first gold medal at the World Championships. Chupkov came home with a 31.99 to be the only swimmer under 32 seconds on the last 50. In fact only one other person in the field was under 33 the last 50 and that was silver medalist Yasuhiro Koseki of Japan. Koseki came home with a 32.78.

Chupkov broke his European and Championship records with a 2:06.96 to be the second swimmer ever under 2:07. Koseki picked up his first individual medal at the Worlds with a 2:07.29 silver medal performance. Japan’s world record holder Ippei Watanabe picked up the bronze with a 2:07.47 for his first individual medal at a major meet.

Great Britain’s Ross Murdoch (2:08.12), USA’s Nic Fink (2:08.56), USA’s Kevin Cordes (2:08.68), Russia’s Ilya Khomenko (2:09.18) and Australia’s Matthew Wilson (2:10.37) also competed in the championship final.

This Russia’s first gold medal in the men’s 200 breast at the World Championships. They have not won a medal in the event since the Soviet Union’s Robertas Zulpa was second in the final in 1982.

Men’s 4×200 Free Relay

James Guy unleashed a monster anchor leg on the men’s 800 free relay to give Great Britain the gold medal for the second straight World Championships. Stephen Milne (1:47.25), Nicholas Grainger (1:46.05), Duncan Scott (1:44.60) and Guy (1:43.80) ran away with the gold medal over the back half as the Brits swam a 7:01.70 to claim the gold. They just held off the Russians at 7:02.68.

Russia had Mikhail Dovgalyuk (1:46.00), Mikhail Vekovishchev (1:45.91), Danila Izotov (1:45.97) and Aleksandr Krasnykh (1:44.80) on their silver medal winning relay team. The Americans won the bronze medal with a 7:03.18 for their first bronze in the event since 2001. Blake Pieroni (1:46.33), Townley Haas (1:44.58), Jack Conger (1:45.37) and Zane Grothe (1:46.90) swam for the Americans.

Australia (7:05.98), Japan (7:07.68), Italy (7:09.44), Poland (7:09.62) and the Netherlands (7:12.68) also swam in the championship final.

This is Great Britain’s second overall gold medal in this relay, repeating their performance from the 2015 Worlds. This is also the first medal of the meet for any of their swimmers on the relay.

Guy’s split is the third fastest in history behind China’s Sun Yang (1:43.16, 2013) and France’s Yannick Agnel (1:43.24, 2012).

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Nigel Davis

6 years ago

Cheat 1 Swimming 0

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Pablo Valedon

6 years ago

??!

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Shaheen Alghofari

6 years ago

Great swim by efimova and chupkov on 200 breastroke Betsy Perry Joe Stott

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Vasily Khmelevskih

6 years ago

Haters always gonna hate!!!

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Evgeniy Russkiy

6 years ago

fuck u Nigel Davis u’re asshole! everyone knows usa-team the biggest crackhead cheaters in the world!?

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