{"id":141234,"date":"2015-07-04T02:40:48","date_gmt":"2015-07-04T09:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=141234"},"modified":"2015-07-04T04:36:58","modified_gmt":"2015-07-04T11:36:58","slug":"2015-world-university-games-day-1-finals-live-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/2015-world-university-games-day-1-finals-live-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 World University Games: Day 1 Finals Live Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coverage of the 2015 World University Games is proudly sponsored by adidas<\/a>;. Visit Swimming World\u2019s\u00a0event coverage page<\/a> for live results and recaps.<\/i><\/p>\n

Everything you need to follow along with finals\u00a0live during the World University Games. Hit refresh for the latest coverage.<\/p>\n

Women’s 50 fly semifinals<\/strong><\/p>\n

China’s Lu Ying<\/strong> claimed the first semifinal heat with a strong 26.05 to smoke the field. \u00a0That swim vaulted her to 10th in the world in the event along with Natalia Lovtsova<\/strong> and Emily Seebohm<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Lu will be taking a run at Aleksandra Gerasimenya’s<\/strong> 2013 meet record of 25.84.<\/p>\n

Russia’s Svetlana Chimrova<\/strong> captured the second seed into the finals with a 26.21 to win the second semifinal. That swim pushed her to 19th in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

Canada’s Samantha Corea<\/strong> qualified third overall in 26.34 with Australia’s Holly Barratt<\/strong> posting a fourth-seeded time of 26.61.<\/p>\n

Ukraine’s Darya<\/strong> Stepanyuk<\/strong> (26.71), New Zealand’s Laura<\/strong> Quilter<\/strong> (26.71), Italy’s Elena<\/strong> Di Liddo<\/strong> (26.73) and USA’s Christina<\/strong> Bechtel<\/strong> (26.73) also made the finals.<\/p>\n

USA’s Felicia<\/strong> Lee<\/strong> was unable to progress to finals with an 11th-place time of 27.00.<\/p>\n

Men’s 100 back semifinals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan’s Junya Hasegawa<\/strong> served notice to the rest of the field by blasting semis with a 54.01. \u00a0That’s just off his 20th-ranked season best of 54.00 from the Japanese Nationals earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Hasegawa still has to drop a large amount of time to challenge Ryosuke Irie’s<\/strong> 2009 meet record of 52.60.<\/p>\n

Italy’s Christopher Ciccarese<\/strong> unloaded on the back 50 to close semis with the second seed in 54.23 out of the second semifinal heat.<\/p>\n

USA’s Jack Conger<\/strong> put up the top time in the first semifinal with a third-seeded time of 54.53, likely setting himself up for a personal best during finals.<\/p>\n

Conger’s best is a 54.04 from the 2013 World University Games, and he should get under that time tomorrow night.<\/p>\n

Russia’s Andrei Shabasov<\/strong> (54.65), USA’s Jacob Pebley<\/strong>\u00a0(54.74), Italy’s Matteo Milli<\/strong> (54.95), France’s Eddie Moueddene<\/strong> (55.42) and South Korea’s Seonkwan Park<\/strong> (55.45) also earned their way into the finale.<\/p>\n

Women’s 400 IM finals<\/strong><\/p>\n

USA’s Sarah Henry<\/strong> crushed the rest of the field in the back half of the distance medley as she chalked up another lifetime best with a time of 4:38.88.<\/p>\n

This morning, she broke 4:40 for the first time in her life with a 4:39.62 before clocking a 15th-ranked time tonight in 4:38.88.<\/p>\n

That’s another big title for Henry this year after previously winning the closest women’s 400-yard IM final in the history of the NCAA Championships earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Henry, a senior who battled through multiple ACL tears in her career, overtook the field with a 4:02.47 to win the NCAA title. \u00a0Her win actually came against WUGs teammate Hali Flickinger<\/strong>, who took second in 4:02.73 for Georgia.<\/p>\n

The Universiade record of 4:37.50 set by Ukraine’s Yana Klochkova<\/strong> in 2007 will survive another meet.<\/p>\n

Czech’s Barbora Zavadova<\/strong> took silver in a time of 4:40.03, while Hali Flickinger<\/strong> gave the U.S. a 1-3 finish with a bronze-winning time of 4:40.54.<\/p>\n

South Korea’s Seoyeong Kim<\/strong> finished fourth in 4:41.78 with Italy’s Luisa Trombetti<\/strong> taking fifth in 4:41.84.<\/p>\n

Italy’s Stefania Pirozzi<\/strong> (4:42.02), Australia’s Ellen Fullerton<\/strong> (4:43.29) and China’s Li Xuanxu<\/strong> (4:45.88) also competed for the title.<\/p>\n

Men’s 100 breast semifinals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Great Britain’s Craig Benson<\/strong> nearly cleared 1:00 in semis with a 1:00.16 to top the finalists. \u00a0That swim pushed him up to 11th in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

Benson needs to cut another half-a-second to challenge Igor Borysik’s<\/strong> meet record of 59.53 from 2009. \u00a0Should he do that during finals, he’d break into the top five in the world this year.<\/p>\n

Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Balandin<\/strong>, who had a breakthrough summer last year at the Youth Olympics, led the way in the first semifinal with a 1:00.27. \u00a0That swim jumped him into a tie with Jake Packard<\/strong> for 15th in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

Serbia’s Caba Siladji<\/strong>, the man with the top ranked time this year with a 59.79 from the Eindhoven Swim Cup, qualified third in 1:00.51.<\/p>\n

Great Britain’s James Wilby<\/strong> qualified fourth in 1:00.59 with Russia’s Oleg Kostin<\/strong> taking fifth in 1:00.62.<\/p>\n

Japan’s Kazuki Kohinata<\/strong> (1:00.81), Australia’s Nicholas Schafer<\/strong> (1:00.86) and USA’s Daniel MacDonald<\/strong> (1:00.93) all broke 1:01 to make the finale.<\/p>\n

Women’s 200 back semifinals<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second semifinal had the top swimmers with Team USA going 1-2 out of semifinal qualifying.<\/p>\n

Lisa Bratton<\/strong> raced her way to the top with a 2:11.08 as she stormed back from fourth at the turn.<\/p>\n

Melanie Klaren<\/strong> also used some backhalf speed to pull herself into the second seed with a 2:11.58. Czech’s Simona Baumrtova<\/strong> had led through the 150, but faded to the third seed overall in 2:11.60.<\/p>\n

Japan’s Yuka Kawayoke<\/strong> beat the second semifinal field by nearly a second with a time of fourth-seeded 2:11.62.<\/p>\n

It’s going to take a huge time drop for anyone to challenge Stephanie Proud’s<\/strong> meet record of 2:08.91 from 2009.<\/p>\n

Canada’s Barbara Rojas-Jardin<\/strong> (2:12.52), France’s Camille Gheorghiu<\/strong> (2:12.71), Russia’s Alexandra Papusha<\/strong> (2:13.00) and Japan’s Miki Takahashi<\/strong> (2:13.13) will also compete for the gold medal tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Men’s 50 fly semifinals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Belarus’ Yauhen Tsurkin<\/strong> clipped Brazil’s Henrique Martins<\/strong> in semifinal 2 for the top two times out of the sprint fly semifinals.<\/p>\n

Tsurkin posted a time of 23.43 to move into an 11th-ranked tie with Konrad Czerniak<\/strong> and Vlad Morozov<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Martins, who already tied his ninth-ranked season best of 23.38 during prelims, settles for the second seed in 23.46.<\/p>\n

Italy’s Piero Codia<\/strong> bettered his 17th-ranked season best of 23.55 from the Sette Colli meet with a 23.48 to top semifinal 1 and finish third in semis. \u00a0His swim tonight moved him to 14th in the world.<\/p>\n

Russia’s Oleg Kostin<\/strong> (23.52), China’s Shi Yang<\/strong> (23.77), USA’s Matt Josa<\/strong> (23.86), USA’s Andrew Seliskar<\/strong> (24.11) and Russia’s Aleksandr Sadovnikov<\/strong> (24.13) grabbed the other transfer spots into finals.<\/p>\n

Women’s 400 free relay finals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Team USA clipped Russia’s Universiade record of 3:38.15 from 2013 with a blistering time of 3:38.12 for the win.<\/p>\n

Abbey Weitzeil<\/strong> (54.78), Shannon Vreeland<\/strong> (54.34), Madeline Locus<\/strong> (54.95) and Lia Neal<\/strong> (54.05) managed to give Team USA its second gold medal of the evening in a dominant fashion to win by more than three seconds.<\/p>\n

Japan’s Yui Yamane<\/strong> (55.07), Yasuko Miyamoto<\/strong> (55.63), Aya Sato<\/strong> (54.75) and Mari Sumiyoshi<\/strong> (55.70) placed second in 3:41.15.<\/p>\n

Russia’s Polina Lapshina<\/strong> (56.17), Margarita Nesterova<\/strong> (54.68), Elizaveta Bazarova<\/strong> (55.63) and Rozaliya Nasretdinova<\/strong> (54.86) closed out the podium with a bronze-winning 3:41.34.<\/p>\n

China (3:41.99), Italy (3:42.89), Australia (3:43.73), Sweden (3:44.50) and Canada (3:44.90) also swam in the final.<\/p>\n

Men’s 400 free relay finals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Team USA made it a clean sweep of the gold medals as the foursome of Matt Ellis<\/strong> (49.86), Michael Wynalda<\/strong> (49.38), Jack Conger<\/strong> (47.75) and Seth Stubblefield<\/strong> (48.86) put together a winning time of 3:15.85 in the men’s 400-meter free relay.<\/p>\n

Italy initially led at the 200-meter mark with Giuseppe Guttuso<\/strong> (49.62) and Jonathan Boffa<\/strong> (49.11) getting them out front in 1:38.73. \u00a0But, Team USA had the nuclear weapon of the night in Conger with his ridiculous 47.75 split to put the swim away.\u00a0Italy faded to fourth in 3:18.43.<\/p>\n

Japan’s Reo Sakata<\/strong> (50.06), Kosuke Matsui<\/strong> (49.75), Takumi Komatsu<\/strong> (49.49) and Toru Maruyama<\/strong> (48.68) placed second in 3:17.98 with Russia’s Ivan Kuzmenko<\/strong> (50.22), Oleg Tikhobaev<\/strong> (49.55), Alexander Tikhonov<\/strong> (50.17) and Mikhail Polishchuk<\/strong> (48.24) took bronze in 3:18.18.<\/p>\n

Turkey (3:20.51), Belarus (3:20.82) and South Africa (3:21.07) placed fifth through seventh, while Australia drew a disqualification after an early takeoff between Jack McLoughlin<\/strong> and Justin James<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

2015 World University Games, Day 1 Finals – Results<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

SCHEDULED EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n