Ryan Murphy, Molly Renshaw Among Top Seeds after Day 5 Prelims

by David Rieder - Senior Writer

27 July 2017, 02:35am

After a short break in competition Sarah Sjostrom continued to display her dominance with a top showing of 53.01 in prelims of the women’s 100 free. Olympic gold medallists Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak qualified within the top eight for the semi-finals heats.

Ryan Murphy claimed the top seed in the men’s 200 back, while Molly Renshaw and Anton Chupkov lead the 200 breast qualifiers into semi-finals.

China dominated the women’s 800 free relay prelims, leading the race from start to finish in prelims of day five.

DAY FIVE PRELIMS RESULTS

Event Schedule:

• Women’s 100 free
• Men’s 200 back
• Women’s 200 breast
• Men’s 200 breast
• Women’s 800 free relay

Women’s 100 Free

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom popped a 53.01 in the prelims of the women’s 100 free, well off her world record of 51.71 set leading off Sweden’s women’s 400 free relay squad Sunday evening, but good enough to claim the top spot into the semi-finals.

Denmark’s Pernille Blume, the Olympic gold medalist in the 50 free, qualified second in 53.13, and she was followed by the two women who shared Olympic gold in the 100 free last year: the United States’ Simone Manuel (53.17) and Canada’s Penny Oleksiak (53.18).

American Mallory Comerford was fifth in 53.42, just ahead of the Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo (53.45) and Australians Emma McKeon (53.47) and Bronte Campbell (53.56). Kromowidjojo was the Olympic gold medalist in the event in 2012, while Campbell won the World title in the event two years ago in Kazan.

Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, fresh off her gold medal in the women’s 200 free, was ninth in 53.92, and she will be joined in the semi-finals by France’s Charlotte Bonnet (54.00), China’s Zhu Menghui (54.00), Canada’s Sandrine Mainville (54.22), Sweden’s Michelle Coleman (54.23), Great Britain’s Freya Anderson (54.25) and Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (54.45).

The Netherlands’ Maud Van Der Meer and Israel’s Andrea Murez tied for 16th in 54.49, necessitating a swim-off to determine the final qualifier into the semis.

Men’s 200 Back

American Ryan Murphy was beat out for the World title in the 100 back, but his 200 appears to be on point in the early goings in Budapest. He trailed Hungary’s Peter Bernek by a full bodylength heading into the final 50 of their prelim heat, but Murphy accelerated down the stretch and posted the top time of the morning in 1:56.11.

Bernek qualified second in 1:56.56, ahead of Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys (1:56.67) and Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov (1:56.74). China’s Xu Jiayu, the World Champion in the 100 back, was fifth in 1:56.92.

Japan’s Ryosuke Irie qualified sixth in 1:57.21, and Russia’s Evgeny Rylov was seventh in 1:57.28. They were followed by Hungary’s Adam Telegoy (1:57.41), China’s Li Guangyuan (1:57.66), Great Britain’s Luke Greenbank (1:57.67) and Australia’s Josh Beaver (1:57.67).

A trio of big names had to squeeze into the semi-finals as Japan’s Kosuke Hagino was 12th in 1:57.97, while Australia’s Mitch Larkin, the reigning World Champion, qualified 13th in 1:58.00. The USA’s Jacob Pebley took 14th in 1:58.05.

Brazil’s Leonardo De Deus (1:58.33) and New Zealand’s Corey Main (1:58.34) earned the final two spots in the top 16. Poland’s Radoslaw Kawecki, the Short Course World Champion, was 18th in 1:58.41.

Women’s 200 Breast

Great Britain’s Molly Renshaw posted the top time in the women’s 200 breast prelims, coming in at 2:24.03 in the third of four heats. The United States’ Lilly King, the 100 breast World Champion and new world record-holder, won her heat in 2:24.28 to claim the No. 2 time overall.

Australia’s Taylor McKeown took third in 2:24.31, and Spain’s Jessica Vall was fourth in 2:24.41. Making her international debut, the USA’s Bethany Galat took fifth in 2:24.56, one hundredth ahead of Canada’s Kierra Smith (2:24.57).

World record-holder Rikke Moeller Pedersen qualified seventh in 2:24.69, followed by the Czech Republic’s Martina Moravcikova (2:25.26), Canada’s Ashley McGregor (2:25.31) and China’s Shi Jinglin (2:25.39).

Russia’s Yulia Efimova, the No. 1-ranked swimmer in the world this year at 2:19.83, cruised to an 11th-place time of 2:25.63. Efimova will aim to bounce back after a disappointing third-place finish in Tuesday’s 100 breast final. In the prelims, she swam next to her big rival from the 100 breast, King

Rounding out the semi-final qualifiers were Japan’s Reona Aoki (2:25.93), South Korea’s Back Suyeon (2:26.45), Great Britain’s Jocelyn Ulyett (2:26.50), Japan’s Satomi Suzuki (2:26.78) and Finland’s Jenna Laukkanen (2:28.59).

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.

Women’s 800 Free Relay

China arrived at the Duna Arena for the 800 free relay prelims ready to race. Zhang Yuhan (1:57.13), Liu Zixuan (1:56.82), Wang Jingzhuo (1:59.09), and Shen Duo (1:58.71) jumped to an early lead and never looked back. Focused on nothing but moving forward. The foursome would clock a top seed time of 7:51.75 to return as the top seed, thanks largely in part to a dominating 1:56.82 split from Liu as the second swimmer.

For much of the race the battle for second was between the USA and Australia, however, Japan’s Aya Takano delivered a 1:57.76 as the anchor to move the Japanese to second in prelims. Chihiro Igarashi (1:58.74), Rikako Ikee (1:58.53), Tomomi Acki (1:58.64), and Takano (1:57.76) posted a combined time of 7:53.67 to edge out the competition.

The USA finished a close third as teammates Melanie Margalis (1:56.58), Cierra Runge (1:59.17), Hali Flickinger (1:58.36), and Madisyn Cox (1:59.52) turned in a time of 7:53.73.

Australia settled for fourth and a combined time of 7:54.74, followed by the Netherlands’ 7:56.16.

Russia (7:55.67), Hungary (7:55.77), and Canada (7:56.49) rounded out the top eight qualifiers.

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Thomas A. Small

6 years ago

Congratulations

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