World Championships, Day Four Prelims: Jordan Crooks Moves to Fifth All-Time in 50 Free; Daiya Seto Tops 200 Breast

Jordan Crooks of Cayman Islands, Maxime Grousset of France prepare to compete in the 100m Freestyle Men Final during the FINA Swimming Short Course World Championships at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre in Melbourne, Australia, December 15th, 2022. Photo Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Jordan Crooks (left) and Maxime Grousset -- Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

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

World Championships, Day Four Prelims: Jordan Crooks Moves to Fifth All-Time in 50 Free; Daiya Seto Tops 200 Breast

During the fourth preliminary session of the Short Course World Championships, Jordan Crooks of the Cayman Islands produced a huge performance in the 50 freestyle heats to put himself in position to chase his first international medal in the midst of a brilliant sophomore season at the University of Tennessee. Meanwhile, veteran IMer Daiya Seto will chase his first international medal in breaststroke Friday evening after earning lane four for the 200 breast final.

Men’s 200 Breaststroke

Japanese veteran Daiya Seto has won 14 medals at the World Championships over six appearances at the event (including Thursday’s silver in the 200 butterfly), but none of those have ever come in the 200 breaststroke. But the 28-year-old posted the top times in prelims as he held off American Nic Fink in the final heat of prelims. Fink is the defending champion in the event, and he already won 100 breast gold in Melbourne. Seto posted a time of 2:02.43 in prelims, just ahead of Fink’s 2:02.75.

Another Japanese swimmer, former long course world-record holder Ippei Watanabe, took third in 2:03.64, with China’s Qin Haiyang (2:03.81) and France’s Antoine Viquerat (2:03.93) finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. Sweden’s Erik Persson, Germany’s Marco Koch and Brazil’s Caio Pumputis were also finalists. Koch is a former short course world-record holder in the event.

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Men’s 50 Freestyle

Jordan Crooks was the fastest swimmer through the prelims and semifinals of the 100 free, and although he faded to sixth in the final, he still showed he is capable of contending with big names in short course international finals. Crooks will once again be very much in contention in the 50 free after he crushed a strong field in prelims. He posted a time of 20.36 to move to fifth all-time in the event behind only Caeleb Dressel, Florent Manaudou, Roland Schoeman and Vladimir Morozov. Crooks was only two tenths off Dressel’s world record of 20.16.

Another swimmer representing a Caribbean nation, Trinidad and Tobago’s Dylan Carter, qualified second in 20.70. Carter is fresh off a dominant season on the FINA World Cup circuit. The long course world champion, Great Britain’s Ben Proud, took fourth in 20.88, just ahead of Manaudou (20.94) and Hong Kong’s Ian Ho (20.99).

Great Britain’s Lewis Burras and Hungary’s Szebasztian Szabo tied for sixth in 21.00, with the USA’s Michael Andrew eighth (21.02). Australia’s Kyle Chalmers, fresh off a world title in the 100 free, was ninth in 21.09, with Ukraine’s Vladyslav Bukhov, France’s Maxime Grousset, Italy’s Alessandro Miressi, Japan’s Kosuke Matsui, Greece’s Kristian Gkolomeev, Italy’s Leonardo Deplano and Slovakia’s Matej Dusa also qualifying for semifinals.

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Men’s 800 Freestyle Relay

The United States will be favored in the men’s 800 free relay final with the same foursome who captured the long course world title likely to compete in finals. The team of Trenton Julian, Jake Magahey, Jake Foster and Drew Kibler posted the top time in prelims at 6:53.63, with Kibler anchoring in 1:41.97. Julian and Kibler are likely to return in finals along with 400 free world champion Kieran Smith and 200 IM silver medalist Carson Foster (Jake’s younger brother) after that same group posted a three-second win in Budapest.

Japan’s Temma Watanabe, Hidenari Mano, Shuya Matsumoto and Katsuhiro Matsumoto (anchor leg of 1:42.63) finished second in prelims in 6:54.26, and Italy’s Matteo Ciampi, Manuel Frigo, Paolo Conte Bonin placed third in 6:54.54. Australia’s Clyde Lewis, Flynn Southam, Stuart Swinburn and Brendon Smith were fourth in 6:54.83. South Korea, led off by Hwang Sunwoo in 1:41.97, took fifth in 6:55.24, and Bulgaria, Spain and Canada also got into the final.

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