World Championships, Day 3 Women’s Prelims: Julie Kepp Jensen Leads Loaded 50 Back Field

Julie Jensen of Denmark and Maaike De Waard of The Netherlands prepare to compete in the 50m Butterfly Women Semifinal during the FINA Swimming Short Course World Championships at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre in Melbourne, Australia, December 13th, 2022. Photo Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Julie Kepp Jensen, left, and Maaike de Waard; Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

A Special Thanks to Deep Blue Media for providing the images from this meet

World Championships, Day 3 Women’s Prelims: Julie Kepp Jensen Leads Loaded 50 Back Field

The third day of preliminaries in Melbourne at the 2022 FINA World Short-Course Championships began with one of the fastest and deepest events in the women’s field, the 50 backstroke, on Thursday. Among the slew of starts, medalists and world record contenders, the lead in prelims went to a potentially unlikely figure: Julie Kepp Jensen of Denmark, nabbing herself a national record in the process.

All the women’s results from the third prelims session in Melbourne.

Women’s 50 backstroke

The semifinals of the 50 back is positively loaded. Six of the eight finalists in the 100 backstroke and nine of the top 11 finishers in that event are there. That includes gold medalist Kaylee McKeown (10th in 26.24), silver medalist Mollie O’Callaghan (third in 25.94) and one of the bronze medalists, Claire Curzan. The American is in a four-way tie, with Swedes Hanna Rosvall and Louise Hansson, the latter of whom was fifth in the 100.

The only reprieve from the medalists is that Ingrid Wilm, the Canadian bronze medalist in the 100, is absence. You know, to be replaced by Maggie MacNeil, the gold medalist in the 50 fly and the world record holder in this event. She turned in the seventh-fastest time in prelims at 26.09, tied with Kira Toussaint.

Above all that fray is Julie Kepp Jensen, who went 25.85 to lead the field in prelims. It’s a Danish record, better by two tenths the time of 26.08 she set two years ago today. Second is Canadian Kylie Masse, who finished sixth in the 100 and won silver in this event last year in Abu Dhabi, with a time of 25.94. Just 0.24 seconds separate the top eight.

Both Americans qualified for semifinals, though Erika Brown (15th in 26.50) will need to speed up to continue on.

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Women’s 200 butterfly

Americans are sitting in the top two spots, as the limited 200 fly field qualifies directly to finals. Dakota Luther led the way at 2:03.73; it’s a best time for her by more than three seconds, her seed time listed at a 2:07.02. Second was Hali Flickinger, who may have the American record of Kelsi Dahlia (2:01.73) in her sights. She cruised into the final in 2:04.66.

The third seed was Helena Bach of Denmark in 2:05.09, with eight tenths grouping swimmers three through eight. That includes Lana Pudar of Bosnia & Herzegovina, who won bronze in this event in Abu Dhabi last year and will need to bring the outside smoke to do it again. She was eighth in 2:05.87, scraping into the final by .07 seconds.

Missing out on the final was the top seed, China’s Zhang Yifan. She went 2:07.05, nearly four seconds slower than her seed. The race was already without reigning champ Zhang Yufei of China.

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Women’s 100 individual medley

Louise Hansson pulled through a daunting double to set the pace in the 100 IM with a time of 57.98, as the Swedish contingent continues to impress. She was followed by Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands, a distant second in 58.87. Helena Gasson was third in 58.92. Beryl Gastaldello, the reigning silver medalist in the event, tied for fifth in prelims.

In a rare event without an American entered, two Canadians got through. Mary-Sophie Harvey finished fourth in prelims, with Sydney Pickrem tied with Japanese gold medalist Yui Ohashi for 10th. Eighth was South Africa’s Rebecca Meder, who went 59.38. That downs Kristy Coventry’s 14-year-old African record of 59.77.

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Women’s 200 free relay

Australia has a national record in hand with weapons waiting on deck for finals. The winners of the 400 free were the second seed in prelims in 1:36.14, .06 behind the pace set by China. Meg Harris, Alexandria Perkins, Brittany Casteluzzo and Mollie O’Callaghan comprised that foursome, Harris and O’Callaghan each getting sub-24.

China led the way in 1:36.08, with Zhang Yufei, Liu Shuhan, Yujie Cheng and Yang Junxuan. Third are the Americans in 1:36.17 (Erika Brown, Erin Gemmell, Natalie Hinds, Alex Walsh). The Netherlands are grouped with the leading back in fourth in 1:36.32, .24 off the pace and more than a second ahead of the chasing field.

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