Russia’s Vitalina Simonova led the way in prelims with a 2:25.46, that’s not too far off her 15th-ranked 2:24.93 from the Russian Nationals, but she’s got plenty of company headed into the semifinal heats with her.<\/p>\n
\nSimonova’s Splits:<\/h2>\n
33.11 (1) 1:10.15 (1)
\n37.04 1:46.91 (1)
\n36.76 2:25.46
\n38.55<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Spain’s Marina Urzainqui (2:26.43) and Jessica Vall Montero (2:26.80) took second and third with Italye’s Giulia De Ascentis also putting up a 2:26 with a fourth-place 2:26.88. Belgium’s Fanny Lecluyse snared fifth in 2:27.38.<\/p>\n
Denmark’s Rikke Moeller Pedersen, who leads the world with a sizzling 2:19.61 from the Eindhoven Swim Cup, cruised through into semis with a sixth-place 2:27.42.<\/p>\n
Great Britain’s Molly Renshaw (2:27.49) and Germany’s Vanessa Grimberg (2:27.56) make up the rest of the top half of the semi field.<\/p>\n
Russia’s Maria Astashkina (2:27.95), Iceland’s Hilda Luthersdottir (2:28.07), Czech’s Martina Moravcikova (2:28.37), Italy’s Elisa Celli (2:28.59), France’s Coralie Dobral (2:29.12), Slovenia’s Tanja Smid (2:30.29), Finland’s Jenna Laukkanen (2:30.74) and Ukraine’s Olga Tovstogan (2:30.77) also made their way into the semis.<\/p>\n
Men’s 100 free<\/h1>\n
The two-per-country rule claimed some of its biggest names of the meet as the top two ranked swimmers in the field, Vlad Morozov and Andrey Grechin, who are tied for fifth in the world with 48.25s this year, both will did not make the semis. \u00a0Grechin (49.05) and Morozov (49.14) finished behind Alexander Sukhorukov (48.93) and Sergey Fesikov (48.97) in qualifying.<\/p>\n
Another big name also missed semis as Marco Orsi of Italy clocked a sixth-place 48.94, but fell behind Luca Leonardi (48.66) and Luca Dotto (48.84) of Italy as those two went 1-2 in prelims.<\/p>\n
\nLeonardi Splits:<\/h2>\n
23.05 (1) 48.66
\n25.61<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hungary’s Dominik Kozma (48.86), The Netherlands’ Sebastiaan Verschuren (48.92), France’s Fabien Gilot (49.08), Belgium’s Pieter Timmers (49.14) and Germany’s Markus Deibler (49.19) also finished in the top half of the seeds advancing.<\/p>\n
France’s Florent Manaudou (49.24), Romania’s Marius Radu (49.28), Greece’s Kristian Gkolomeev (49.49), Poland’s Kacper Majchrzak (49.58), Greece’s Christos Katrantzis (49.62), Spain’s Markel Alberdi (49.62) and Great Britain’s Ben Proud (49.70) also made the semis.<\/p>\n
Women’s 100 fly<\/h1>\n
The semis of the 100 fly are stacked with Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen leading the way with a 57.42. That’s not far off her second-ranked 56.96 from the Canet stop of the Mare Nostrum circuit. \u00a0Meanwhile, top-ranked Sarah Sjostrom, who popped a 56.50 at the Sette Colli Trophy this summer, qualified second\u00a0in 57.80 as those two should put on a show the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
\nOttesen’s Splits:<\/h2>\n
26.83 (1) 57.42
\n30.59<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Italy’s Ilaria Bianchi (57.84), The Netherlands’ Inge Dekker (57.95), Italy’s Elena Di Liddo (58.09), Belgium’s Kimberly Buys (58.41) and Great Britain’s Jemma Lowe (58.43) are also among the top qualifiers making the semifinal heats.<\/p>\n
Slovakia’s Katarina Listopadova (58.64), Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu (58.87), Switzerland’s Danielle Villars (58.91), France’s Marie Wattel (58.95), Germany’s Alexandra Wenk (59.11), Spain’s Judit Ignacio Sorribes (59.36), France’s Beryl Gastaldello (59.69) and Hungary’s Evelyn Verraszto (59.76) are also headed to the semis.<\/p>\n
Italy’s Silvia Di Pietro is the only two-per-country victim, losing out on her 59.28.<\/p>\n
Men’s 800 free<\/h1>\n
Faroe Island’s Pal Joensen had a big-time swim this morning in the distance freestyle as he led all qualifying with a 7:53.09. \u00a0That performance vaulted him to ninth in the world rankings. \u00a0Czech’s Jan Micka pushed him the entire way in the final heat of four as Micka moved to 10th in the world with a 7:53.38.<\/p>\n
\nJoensen Splits:<\/h2>\n
27.52 (4)
\n27.52 56.92 (4)
\n29.40 1:26.63 (4)
\n29.71 1:56.60 (5)
\n29.97 2:26.37 (6)
\n29.77 2:55.97 (4)
\n29.60 3:25.64 (3)
\n29.67 3:55.68 (3)
\n30.04 7:53.09
\n27.95 q 4:25.60 (2)
\n29.92 4:55.48 (1)
\n29.88 5:25.41 (1)
\n29.93 5:55.48 (1)
\n30.07 6:25.40 (1)
\n29.92 6:55.47 (1)
\n30.07 7:25.14 (1)
\n29.67<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Italy’s Gabriele Detti (7:53.51), Hungary’s Gergely Gyurta (7:55.34), Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri (7:55.35), Great Britain’s Stephen Milne (7:56.40), Slovakia’s Richard Nagy (7:56.74) and The Netherlands’ Ferry Weertman (7:57.80) also will do battle in the championship finale. \u00a0Detti and Paltrinieri are the favorites, as they are ranked 1 and 2 in the world with a 7:42.74 and 7:43.01, respectively.<\/p>\n
Women’s 800 free relay<\/h1>\n
Italy’s Alice Mizzau (2:01.70), Chiara Masini Luccetti (1:58.49), Diletta Carli (1:59.56) and Stefania Pirozzi (2:02.22) put up the time to beat in the timed final event with an 8:01.97. \u00a0France (8:02.02), Spain (8:04.15) and Switzerland (8:13.93) also swam this morning.<\/p>\n
Twitter Coverage<\/h1>\n
For up to the minute coverage, follow us on Twitter @SwimmingWorld:<\/p>\n