World Championships, Day Two Men’s Prelims: Out of Early Heat, Jordan Crooks Grabs Top Seed In 100 Freestyle; Popovici Easily Through

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

World Championships, Day Two Men’s Prelims: Out of Early Heat, Jordan Crooks Grabs Top Seed In 100 Freestyle; Popovici Easily Through

The second session of preliminaries at the World Short Course Championships featured an intense start, as Canadian teenager Ilya Kharun and Estonia’s Daniel Zaitsev battled for the final spot in the evening final of the 50-meter butterfly. It was Zaitsev who advanced to the medals race, on the strength of a 22.15 effort. That time bettered the 22.28 of Kharun, who matched his world junior record and posted that mark in all three of his races.

Following the duel between Kharun and Zaitsev, men’s prelims were conducted in the 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, which brought some of the biggest names in the sport to the deck, including David Popovici, Kyle Chalmers and Adam Peaty. Additionally, qualifying in the mixed 200 medley relay was held.

Complete Results

Here is a breakdown of what transpired during the second day of preliminaries.

Mixed 200 Medley Relay

The University of Virginia tandem of Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh put the exclamation point on the United States’ leading qualifying time of 1:36.83 in the mixed 200 medley relay. After Shaine Casas (22.98) and Michael Andrew (25.56) handled the opening two legs for the American squad, Douglass and Walsh went to work with respective splits of 24.37 and 23.92. On the opening night of competition, the Cavaliers won gold and silver in the 200 individual medley

Team USA will likely make some changes to the relay for the final, but the morning crew did all it needed while placing ahead of Germany (1:37.90) and Great Britain (1:38.46). Anna Elendt (29.15) and Marius Kusch (21.66) were key in the middle of the German relay while Britain received a 25.49 breaststroke split from Adam Peaty.

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Men’s 100 Freestyle

Out of an early heat, the sixth of 11 specifically, the Cayman Islands’ Jordan Crooks secured the top seed in the 100 freestyle with a blazing time of 45.61. The University of Tennessee standout has delivered a number of elite performances in short-course yards, and now he has a major marker to his name in short-course meters. On the way to his 45-mid showing, Crooks was out in 21.70 and came home in 23.91.

Crooks was one of three swimmers to break the 46-second barrier, as he was joined by Frenchman Maxime Grousset (45.77) and Australian world-record holder Kyle Chalmers (45.84). In the fourth slot was long-course world-record holder David Popovici, who blasted through the back half of his race for a time of 46.15. Popovici split 23.71 for his last 50 meters.

Unless someone scratches ahead of the semifinals, the United States will not have a representative in the final 16, as Drew Kibler (47.05) and Hunter Armstrong (47.11) were 17th and tied for 18th, respectively.

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100 Breaststroke

Italian Nicolo Martinenghi cruised to a win in his heat and advanced to the semifinals as the No. 1 seed behind a clocking of 56.60, which was slightly quicker than the 56.62 of Japan’s Yuya Hinomoto. Martinenghi was the silver medalist in this event at last year’s Short-Course Worlds and won the gold medal at the long-course World Champs over the summer.

Also going under the 57-second mark were China’s Qin Haiyang (56.66) and Great Britain’s Adam Peaty (56.81). Peaty is returning to major competition for the first time since the summer, when he failed to medal in the event at the Commonwealth Games. Finishing fifth in prelims was American Nic Fink, as he went 57.02.

The other American in the field, Michael Andrew, failed to reach the semifinals after posting the 25th-fastest time of the morning.

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