Streamlined News: Fireworks on Day Three of Short Course Worlds


PHOENIX, Arizona, December 14. WE had to wait until the final individual event today at the short course world championships to see a world record, and Ryan Lochte delivered in a big way, breaking the 1:50 barrier in the 200 IM with a 1:49.63. Lochte was always ahead of record pace, including a full second ahead after the breaststroke. Lochte was the previous world record holder, having gone 1:50.08 at the 2010 short course worlds. Daiya Seto and Laszlo Cseh renewed their 400 IM rivalry, with Seto getting second just nine hundredths ahead of Cseh.

Lochte's swim was the sole gold medal for the Americans, but not for lack of trying. Chloe Sutton was two hundredths of a second away from a gold medal in the women's 400 free, placing second in the 400 freestyle behind Spain's Melanie Costa Schmid. That final was a little diluted, since it did not feature new world record holder Camille Muffat, who is not competing in this meet, or Olympic silver medalist Allison Schmitt, who placed 12th in the prelims. Reports from USA Swimming indicate Schmitt just had a bad prelim swim and is not sick or injured.

Britta Steffen and Paul Beidermann didn't have the Olympic Games many hoped or expected from them, but the German power couple each snagged gold medals today at the short course world championships in Istanbul, Turkey. Steffen won the world title in the 100 free with a 52.31. Megan Romano led that 100 free final for about 85 meters but settled for silver with a very fast 52.48 ahead of Olympic bronze medalist Tang Yi of China.

Biedermann applied the same tactic as Steffen in the final of the 400 freestyle, letting China's Hao Yu take the lead for 380 meters before Biedermann motored home to defend his short course world title with a 3:38. Hao hung on for second with Mads Glaesner placed third.

Katinka Hosszu gave the crowd another come-from-behind swim in the women's 100 IM, beating out breaststrokers Ruta Meilutyte on the freestyle leg to win her second gold of the meet.

Vlad Morozov took down reigning Olympic champion Florent Manaudou in the 50 freestyle with a really fast time of 20.55, fifth-fastest in history. Morozov has been swimming superbly since helping Russia win a bronze medal in the 400 free relay at the Olympics, and this sets him up for a great 100 free final on Sunday.

Denmark had four Olympians on its women's 400 medley relay, and that was the key to beating the Australians and the Americans, who didn't have their country's top swimmers in Turkey. Denmark has won three medals so far at this meet, an impressive haul so far for the tiny nation.

If you were not able to follow our live coverage of the meet on swimmingworld.com, you can read our complete recap, which is up now at swimmingworld.com. We'll be doing more of the same on the final two days, bringing you up-to-the-minute results on swimmingworld.com and on Twitter. Streamlined News is taking the weekend off, but we'll be back Monday to wrap up the final two days of competition in Istanbul.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x