World Cup Athens, Day 3 Prelims: Sarah Sjostrom & Kaylee McKeown Each Through To Two Finals

Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden competes in the 50m Freestyle Women semifinal during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 29th, 2023. Sarah Sjostrom placed first with a new world record.

Sarah Sjostrom: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

World Cup Athens, Day 3 Prelims: Sarah Sjostrom & Kaylee McKeown Each Through To Two Finals

Sarah Sjostrom reached the finals of the 100 fly and 100 free on the final morning of prelims at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Athens.

Sjostrom has already claimed the fly and free sprint titles in the Greek capital and now returns to the two-length events.

Kaylee McKeown seeks a backstroke clean sweep in the 200 as well as the 200IM with Qin Haiyang also going for a breaststroke hat-trick.

McKeown leads the women’s World Cup rankings ahead of Sjostrom and Zhang Yufei with Matt Sates – who won two titles on Saturday despite a fractured wrist – heading the men’s equivalent with Michael Andrew second.

Here’s how day three prelims unfolded:

Men’s 400IM Slowest Heats

Joshua Brown headed the slowest heat which featured just seven swimmers in 4:31.06, a time unlikely to make a dent in the evening’s fastest heat.

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Women’s 100m Butterfly

Sarah Sjostrom – fresh from making her 18th journey inside 25secs in the 50 fly – booked lane four in the 100.

The Swede stopped the clock at 58.30 with teammate and European champion Louise Hansson booking the lane alongside her for Sunday’s final in 58.45.

A race of some quality sees Olympic champion Maggie MacNeil through in third (58.63) with Zhang Yufei – winner in Berlin last week – progressing in 58.66.

Men’s 50m Butterfly

Michael Andrew led the way as the eight qualifiers were separated by 0.42.

The American – chasing his third title after winning the 50 free and 50 back – touched in 23.42 ahead of Dylan Carter (23.48) and Abdelrahman Sameh (23.58).

Chad le Clos – the 2018 Commonwealth champion – was 12th.

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Women’s 200m Backstroke

Katie Grimes led the way in 2:11.32 ahead of Kaylee McKeown with the Australian clocking 2:11.83 as she looks to repeat her backstroke clean sweep which has seen her rattle the 50 and 100 world records over the past couple of days.

Kylie Masse, the Tokyo Olympic silver medallist, progressed third in 2:12.72.

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Men’s 100m Backstroke

Thomas Ceccon led the way in 54.43, 0.04 ahead of Apostolos Christou who’ll have the backing of a loud, large Athens crowd.

Ryosuke Irie was next through in 54.72.

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Women’s 50m Breaststroke

Ruta Meilutyte – fresh from her 100 victory – took top spot in 30.92, the only woman inside 31.

Behind her came Sophie Hansson (31.02) and Asian Games bronze medallist Siobhan Haughey, who clocked 31.34.

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Men’s 200m Breaststroke

Qin Hiayang has yet another breaststroke clean sweep in his sights, setting the second-fastest time of prelims behind Caspar Corbeau, the Netherlands swimmer going 2:11.28 to the Chinese athlete’s 2:12.53.

Olympic silver medallist Arno Kamminga progressed in 2:13.46 with 2022 world short-course silver medallist Nic Fink squeaking through in eighth.

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Women’s 100m Freestyle.

Marrit Steenbergen led the way in 54.38 ahead of Bronte Campbell (54.520 and Haughey (54.52).

Olympic silver medallist Haughey last week posted the third-fastest 100 free all-time in 52.02, a time outstripped only by Sjostrom’s 51.71 WR and Emma McKeon‘s 51.96.

Sjostrom and Cate Campbell also made it through in what is set to be a corker of a final.

Men’s 200m Freestyle

Maxmilian Giuliani heads the way in 1:48.56.

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Women’s 200m Individual Medley

McKeown reached her second final of the last evening of the Athens World Cup spot progressing seventh in 2:16.19.

World 2019 bronze medallist Sydney Pickrem was swiftest in 2:14.19 ahead of Waka Kobori (2:14.38), the Japanese swimmer who finished second in the long medley on Saturday.

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Women’s 1500m Freestyle Slowest Heat

Katja Fain was the only woman inside 18mins as she dominated in 17:20.56.

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