With only one day left in the 2016 FINA World Cup Series many athletes looked to defend their titles from the Tokyo stop, while the USA Junior National Team-ers flexed their competitive spirit with some top showings.<\/p>\n
Young distance ace\u00a0Sierra Schmidt\u00a0<\/strong>out-lasted the competition in the women’s 800 free prelims with a 4:10.07 showing. Schmidt leads the competition by over three seconds with Canada’s own young distance star,\u00a0Olivia Anderson,\u00a0<\/strong>nabbing third with a 4:14.71.<\/p>\n Jeanette Ottesen<\/strong> continued to lead the women’s 100 free with a top showing of 53.67 in prelims. She will be joined in finals by fellow sprinters\u00a0Michelle Williams\u00a0<\/strong>of Canada (53.89) and the USA’s\u00a0Kelsi Worrell<\/strong> (54.06). Ottesen also nabbed the top seed in the women’s 50 fly with a 26.16.<\/p>\n The men’s 200 free was highlighted by a slew of talent\u00a0led by\u00a0Pieter Timmers<\/strong> (1:48.84),\u00a0Jeremy Bagshaw<\/strong> (1:49.50), and\u00a0Poul Zellmann<\/strong> (1:49.64).<\/p>\n Felipe Lima\u00a0<\/strong>grabbed a narrow top seed in the men’s 100 breaststroke over\u00a0Yasuhiro Koseki\u00a0<\/strong>as the two posted times of 59.20 and 59.40 respectively.<\/p>\n Australian backstroker\u00a0Emily Seebohm\u00a0<\/strong>turned in the top time in the women’s 100 back prelims with a 58.52, followed closely by the USA’s young stars\u00a0Regan Smith\u00a0<\/strong>(58.86) and\u00a0Lucie Nordmann<\/strong> (59.01).<\/p>\n On the men’s side,\u00a0Mitch Larkin\u00a0<\/strong>topped prelims of the 50 back with a 24.45, but was unable to top\u00a0Clark Beach<\/strong> of the USA in the 200 back. Beach stopped the clock at a 1:55.78 over Larkin’s 1:57.04. Fellow junior national teamer,\u00a0Austin Katz<\/strong>, joined Beach as the third place seed with a 1:57.56.<\/p>\n Jamaica’s\u00a0Alia Atkinson\u00a0<\/strong>delivered top prelims swims in both the 50 breaststroke and 100 IM. The recent World Record holder delivered a 30.03 for the top time in the 50, before following it up with a 1:00.80 showing in the 100 IM. Atkinson also returns as part of the top eight in the 200 breaststroke and the 50 fly.<\/p>\n Fellow breaststroke star\u00a0Breeja Larson\u00a0<\/strong>posted the top time in the women’s 200 breaststroke, clocking a 2:22.98 to finish more than a second ahead of Yulia Efimova<\/strong> (2:24.21) and\u00a0Zoe Bartel\u00a0<\/strong>(2:25.22).<\/p>\n Madeline Groves<\/strong> of Australia dominated prelims of the women’s 200 fly with a 2:05.97, finishing close to five seconds ahead of the second place qualifier\u00a0Katerine Savard<\/strong> (2:10.64).<\/p>\n Cal graduate\u00a0Josh Prenot,\u00a0<\/strong>Japan’s\u00a0Daiya Seto,\u00a0<\/strong>and Belarus’ Pavel\u00a0Yankovich\u00a0<\/strong>finished within .39 seconds of one another in prelims of the men’s 100 fly, setting the scene for a tight race for the gold.<\/p>\n Seto and Prenot will get a second battle later in the session as the two return for the men’s 200 IM. Seto returns as the top qualifier with the only sub-two minute time (1:58.41), while Prenot posted fourth with a 2:01.19.\u00a0Peter Bernek\u00a0<\/strong>(2:01.12) and\u00a0Philip Heintz<\/strong> (2:01.16) filled in second and third respectively.<\/p>\n Veterans turned in the top qualifying times for the men’s 50 free prelims with\u00a0Ark-Pekka Liukkonen<\/strong> of Finland and\u00a0Anthony Ervin\u00a0<\/strong>of the USA posting first and second. Liukkonen turned in a 21.82 over Ervin’s 21.88, while\u00a0Benjamin Proud<\/strong> of Great Britain qualified close behind with a 21.89.<\/p>\n Katinka<\/strong> Hosszu<\/strong>, continuing her busy event schedule,\u00a0<\/strong>made top eight in the 100 free (54.32), 100 back (59.13), 200 fly (2:13.86), and 100 IM (1:01.71).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With only one day left in the 2016 FINA World Cup Series many athletes looked to defend their titles from the Tokyo stop, while the USA Junior National Team-ers flexed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":177903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[58322],"class_list":["post-227163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-2016-world-cup-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n