Sarah Sjostrom Goes Through 200 Free Qualifying On Top As Several Big Names Scratch

sarah-sjostrom-100-fly-semifinals-2019-world-championships

Sarah Sjostrom's inclusion of the 200 freestyle in her program was a big question mark. Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant

World Swimming Championships (Sarah Sjostrom)

Gwangju 2019

Day 3 Heats (Women’s 200 Freestyle)

In the weeks and months leading up to the World Championships, Sarah Sjostrom’s inclusion of the 200 freestyle in her program was a big question mark. It turns out that Sjostrom reaching the starting blocks for the event was the least concerning presence of a big name. While Sjostrom topped the preliminaries of the 200 free with a time of 1:55.14, three medal contenders scratched.

“I only realized when I was at the call room that they weren’t there,” Sjostrom said after her race.

Coming off a silver medal in the 400 freestyle, the United States’ Katie Ledecky withdrew from the event due to illness, as did Australia’s Emma McKeon. USA Swimming released a statement before the third morning got underway, noting that Ledecky had not been feeling well since arriving in Gwangju. The organization later announced that Ledecky was also out of the 1500 freestyle, where she was the top seed and three-time defending world champion.

While Ledecky and McKeon cited health reasons for their withdrawals, Canada’s Taylor Ruck also opted out in order to conserve energy through the remainder of the meet. Ruck is chasing a medal in the 100 backstroke and will have the 100 freestyle later in the week, along with busy relay duty. With the withdrawal of that Big Three, the 200 freestyle quickly lost its status as one of the most-anticipated events of the meet.

“I am sorry that they are not here,” said reigning World Champion Federica Pellegrini. “I would prefer that they were here to race with me but sometimes that happens at the World Championships someone is not fit and it’s okay to me.”

Titmus said she was looking forward to another race with Ledecky, but won’t get that chance until the 800.

“For this meet to race the best I can it doesn’t really matter who I race I am going to put my best foot forward and if that’s enough to win or come second, third, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t change anything,” Titmus said.

Is she disappointed Ledecky won’t be there?

“A little bit because the three girls that pulled out were probably my top three challengers. So it’s a little bit easier now but Pellegrini is in there, Sarah is still in there so it’s still a really tough challenge. The other times weren’t super quick so I just knew I had to get my spot in tonight and I am pretty happy.”

With her focus on the sprint freestyles and 50 and 100 butterfly events, Sjostrom gave the impression that she would bypass the 200 freestyle in Gwangju. But after being upset in the 100 butterfly by Canada’s Maggie MacNeil on Monday night, Sjostrom rallied herself and easily secured the top time of the prelims, posting a mark that was nearly a second quicker than the No. 2 qualifier, Siobhan Haughey (1:56.02).

“I use (the 200 free) to challenge myself,” Sjostrom said. “I feel like when I have the 200 free in my program I become a little bit tougher. If I know I can handle the 200 free the other events are easy for me.

“I feel good. The goal was just to make it to the semi-final,” she said. “I didn’t really know what my pace was and I was in the first seeded heat so I couldn’t really hold it back too much. I just had to try to touch the wall first. I couldn’t really see the other girls first because they were breathing the wrong way so I was swimming a little bit all over the place. It felt like it was a good race especially considering I had the 100 fly yesterday and so I am very happy with that, it’s a season’s best.”

The third and fourth positions went to Australia’s Ariarne Titmus (1:56.34), the winner of the 400 freestyle, and China’s Yang Junxuan (1:56.43).

Chasing her seventh straight medal at the World Champs in the 200 freestyle, Italy’s Federica Pellegrini was fifth in 1:56.81, followed by Canada’s Penny Oleksiak in 1:57.25. The top eight was rounded out by the Czech Republic’s Barbora Seemanova (1:57.32) and China’s Li Bingjie (1:57.59).

Sarah Sjostrom Leads 200 Freestyle Field

1	SJOSTROM	Sarah	SWE	1:55.14
2	HAUGHEY	Siobhan	HKG	1:56.02
3	TITMUS	Ariarne	AUS	1:56.34
	YANG	Junxuan	CHN	1:56.43
5	PELLEGRINI	Federica	ITA	1:56.81
6	OLEKSIAK	Penny	CAN	1:57.25
7	SEEMANOVA	Barbora	CZE	1:57.32
8	LI	Bingjie	CHN	1:57.59
9	ANDERSON	Freya	GBR	1:57.68
10	ANDRUSENKO	Veronika	RUS	1:57.77
11	SALAMATINA	Valeriia	RUS	1:57.98
12	SHIRAI	Rio	JPN	1:58.10
13	BONNET	Charlotte	FRA	1:58.21
14	SCHMITT	Allison	USA	1:58.73
15	DUMONT	Valentine	BEL	1:59.11
16	IGARASHI	Chihiro	JPN	1:59.18

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