Current World Record holder and Olympic Champions will contest their events today during the 2nd prelims session of the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan. The 100 backstrokers, women’s 100 breaststrokers, and men’s 200 freestylers will vie for the semifinal lanes. The women’s milers will compete for a spot in the final.
Several stars will make their individual meet debuts this morning, the first of them being Missy Franklin. Franklin will be pitted against Australian Rival Emily Seebohm in the women’s 100 back. Matt Grevers will rematch with 2014 Pan Pac Champion Ryosuke Irie in the 100 back.
Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte will return to worlds in the women’s 100 breast after setting the World Record in this event in 2013. Next event up, Ryan Lochte will start his meet with the 200 free.
To cap off the session, Katie Ledecky will headline the women’s 1500 meter freestyle.
2015 FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Pool swimming: Sunday, August 2nd – Sunday, August 9th
- Prelims 9:30AM/Finals 5:30PM (Local Time)
- Kazan Arena Stadium
- Kazan, Russia (UTC+3 hours)
- Full coverage
- All sport medal tables
- Live stream (Universal Sports)
- Schedule and Results
WOMEN’S 100M BACKSTROKE – PRELIMS
- 2013 World Champion: Missy Franklin, USA – 58.42
- World Record: 58.12 – Gemma Spofforth, GBR – 2009
- Championship Record: 58.12 – Gemma Spofforth, GBR – 2009
Much of the buzz around this event has focused on the rivalry between Missy Franklin and Australia’s Emily Seebohm, but Katinka Hosszu wasted no time establishing herself as a player this morning.
She crushed the first circle seeded heat of the 100 back, hitting the wall at 58.78 to take a commanding lead in the event going into semifinals. Denmark’s Mie Nielsen was 2nd in that heat with a solid 59.40.
Seebohm charged through the final to earn the 2nd seed, leading Franklin to the wall, 59.04 to 59.59. The other Aussie in this event, Madison Wilson (59.17), won the penultimate heat. That earned her the 3rd seed.
Also racing with Wilson, Kirsty Coventry tied for 7th seed overall. She and Lauren Quigley both hit the wall in 1:00.14.
Franklin looked pretty far behind after her backstroke start, but she made up enough group to take the 5th spot overall. Her USA teammate Kathleen Baker was looking very good through 75 meters. She had the fastest opening 50 (28.53) of anyone this morning, but she fell back at the finish to just miss semis. She was 17th in 1:00.62.
Top 16: Hosszu, HUN; Seebohm, AUS; Wilson, AUS; Nielsen, DEN; Franklin, USA; Fesikove, RUS; Quigley, GBR; Coventry, ZIM; Gustafsdottir, ISL; Medeiros, BRA; Simmonds, GBR; Coleman, SWE; Fu, CHN; Chen, CHN; Tchroz, POL; Bouchard, CAN
MEN’S 100M BACKSTROKE – PRELIMS
- 2013 World Champion: Matt Grevers, USA – 52.93
- World Record: 51.94 – Aaron Peirsol, USA – 2009
- Championship Record: 52.19 – Aaron Peirsol, USA – 2009
Australia’s Mitch Larkin made a statement this morning, leading the men’s 100 backstroke through prelims to grab the top spot for semifinals. Heat 6 was a one man race at the finish, with Larkin touching in 52.50.
Behind him, Liam Tancock (53.35) and Jiayu Lu (53.29) battled closely to take the 3rd and 4th seeds overall. Tancock’s teammate Chris Walker-Hebborn (53.64) is 7th.
Matt Grevers long-armed to the finish to touch out Japan’s Ryosuke Irie in their heat. Grevers sits 2nd after prelims at 53.21. Irie is 5th at 53.57.
The 2 French swimmers in this event, Camille Lacourt and Jeremy Stravius, tied for 12th at 53.92. USA’s David Plummer snuck into the semifinals at 16th in 54.06.
Top 16: Larkin, AUS; Grevers, USA; Tancock, GBR; Lu, CHN; Irie, JPN; Guido, BRA; Walker-Hebborn, GBR; Tarasevich, RUS; Rylov, RUS; Glania, GER; Sabbioni, ITA; Stravius, FRA; Lacourt, FRA; Toumarkin, ISR; Treffers, AUS; Plummer, USA
WOMEN’S 100M BREASTSTROKE – PRELIMS
- 2013 World Champion: Ruta Meilutyte, LTU – 1:04.35
- World Record: 1:04.35 – Ruta Meilutyte, LTU – 2013
- Championship Record: 1:04.35 – Ruta Meilutyte, LTU – 2013
A very fast heat 6 saw Yuliya Efimova top the prelims of the 100 breast. She led the quickest heat out of prelims. Jinglin Shi touched behind her in 1:06.45 for 2nd seed, just ahead of American Jessica Hardy (1:06.68), who rounded out the top 3 seeds for semifinals.
Ruta Meilutyte cruised through the prelims to qualify 4th at 1:06.75. She was out the fastest of anyone this morning (30.98), but clearly shut it down to coast to the finish. Kanako Watanabe (1:06.81) and Hilda Luthersdottir (1:06.87) were the next 2 finishers to the wall in her heat. They’re 5th and 6th respectively.
Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson was 5th in that heat, but landed at 8th overall in a tie with Jeannie Johansson at 1:07.09. Rikke Moller Pederson will also swim in tonight’s semifinal after swimming a 1:07.39 to grab 13th.
USA’s Micah Lawrence won’t advance to the semifinals. She finished in 19th with a 1:07.73.
Top 16: Efimova, RUS; Shi, CHN; Hardy, USA; Meilutyte, LTU; Watanabe, JPN; Luthersdottir, ISL; McKeown, AUS; Johansson, SWE; Atkinson, JAM; Vall, ESP; Lecluyse, BEL; Tonks, AUS; Pedersen, DEN; Nicol, CAN; Castiglioni, ITA; Laukkanen, FIN
MEN’S 200M FREESTYLE – PRELIMS
- 2013 World Champion: Yannick Agnel, FRA – 1:44.20
- World Record: 1:42.00 – Paul Biedermann, GER – 2009
- Championship Record: 1:42.00 – Paul Biedermann, GER – 2009
After winning the 400 free last night, China’s Sun Yang came through the heats this morning with another strong performance. He came from behind in the final heat to qualify 1st with a 1:46.00.
Conor Dwyer (1:46.73) was leading a very tight field of 200 freestylers in heat 6, locked in battle with James Guy and World Record Holder Paul Biedermann. He was 1st through 150 meters, but faded on the final 50 a bit to hit the wall 4th at the finish. That puts him at 7th going into tonight.
Great Britain’s Guy came up victorious at the end of that race, taking 2nd seed in 1:46.10 to overtake Germany’s Biedermann (1:46.20) by a tenth. Guy’s teammate Calum Jarvis (1:46.61) will return as the 5th seed.
David McKeon was just behind Jarvis in that heat, touching in 1:47.00 to earn the 10th spot. Both Australians were through to the top 16 this morning. Cameron McEvoy topped heat 7 to earn 4th in 1:46.39.
Ryan Lochte was seen kicking hard on his back off the wall, using his new strategy through the qualifying rounds. He looked very long on the finish, gliding in at 1:47.18, but it was good enough to qualify him 13th for the semifinals. Chad Le Clos (1:47.17) finished just .01 ahead of him in that heat.
Top 16: Yang, CHN; Guy, GBR; Biedermann, GER; McEvoy, AUS; Jarvis, GBR; Izotov, RUS; Dwyer, USA; Verschuren, NED; Krasnykh, RUS; McKeon, AUS; Stjepanovic, SRB; Le Clos, RSA; Lochte, USA; De Lucca, BRA; Brown, RSA; Grabich, ARG
WOMEN’S 1500M FREESTYLE – PRELIMS
- 2013 World Champion: Katie Ledecky, USA – 15:36.53
- World Record:
15:28.36 – Katie Ledecky, USA – 2014 - Championship Record:
15:36.53 – Katie Ledecky, USA – 2013
She may have missed her World Record when she won the 400 free relay last night, but USA’s Katie Ledecky was better than ever this morning in the prelims of the women’s 1500 free. She looked smooth the whole way through in a historic prelims swim to set a new world record.
Ledecky was leagues ahead of the rest of the field, dropping a 29.47 final 50 to set the new World Record at 15:27.71. She’ll have a chance to lower that even more in the final.
Behind her in that heat, Australia’s Jessica Ashwood swam a sub-16 minute time to qualify 3rd for the final in 15:56.52. Denmark’s Lotte Friis was also under 16 minutes. She ran away with heat 2 to qualify 2nd in 15:54.23.
Friis was over 7 seconds ahead of Chile’s Kristel Kobrich (time) who qualified 4th place. Kobrich came in just before New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle (16:02.84), who will also challenge for a medal tonight.
Boglarka Kapas (16:06.25), Sharon Van Rouwendaal (16:09.12), and Aurora Ponsele (16:12.01) closed out the qualifying spots for finals. Van Rouwendaal will be a contender for a 2nd medal in this race after picking up silver in the 400 free yesterday.
Top 8: Ledecky, USA; Friis, DEN; Ashwood, AUS; Kobrich, CHI; Boyle, NZL; Kapas, HUN; Van Rouwendaal, NED; Ponsele, ITA
Missy injured her back last summer doing a backstroke start. She has mentioned she has been afraid of reinjuring it…perhaps that explains the tentative starts.
Lochte swam that in the most terrifying manner. I thought he might end up dying like, four different times.
I wonder if Prince Chad is watching this 50m fly final and wondering if the front half speed of Laszlo is going to be too much for him on that 100m fly?
I believe he’s probably lost in thought wishing he were in that final swimming away as he looks around the pool at his fellow competitors all the while coming up way too high on his stroke 🙂
Great swim for Larkin. Finally an Australian man who steps up in the big summer meet.
Katy Campbell, second 1500 free qualified American, 16.39 in prelims. No comment. Thank you the US qualification system.
Just saw that Ledecky’s 1500 beat Campbell’s 1400 by over 2 seconds. WTF???
If someone has the video of Mignon’s disaster, I’m interested.
He was disqualified in the heat 5 of the men’s 200 free.
Fortunately we have Manaudou, Lacourt, Stravius and our other male sprinters in the French team because te rest is really pathetic so far.
Only 3 swimmers out 14 have qualified after prelims in the first 2 morning sessions.
Lacourt, Stravius and Manaudou.
Golden palm for Mignon who dived into the water before the start in his 200 free heat and was disaqualified. Great! He will be fresh for the 4X200 free relay!
We have sent a lot of swimmers there but only a few have a level of finalists.
Nothing new. French team = male sprinters and male backstrokers.
Our women’s team is young and lacks experience. They will be better in 2020 but they… Read more »
Is there any way to reverse the order of the comments and put the most recent comments at the top? I ask this for those of use who don’t have access to a live feed or don’t want to check our twitter feed at work, but who can sneak a peak at this site periodically to get updates. I really enjoy the updates and the running commentary but it is a bit cumbersome to wade through all of the comments to see the results of the most recent swims.
Thank you.
A&O
I’ve just watched Missy’s 100 back prelims and as the Italian commentators said:
CATASTROPHIC START FOR MISSY FRANKLIN!
Please, it’s worse and worse. 😥
Then over the water, I was pleased to see the Missy Franklin we all know. She finished strongly.
But with that start, she can’t hope to beat Emily Seebohm who is in the shape of her life. The big effort she has to do to come back before the half-race can cost her a lot of energy for the last 25.
I know it’s always the case, I know it was the case in London and she won but seriously, it looks worse and worse. 😥
I believed that her Cal experience… Read more »
Bobo, as the world catches up to Missy, her starts and turns will become more crucial. I think it was TLF who commented on Katinka’s lack of basics and how she just powers through her swims. If Missy doesn’t have the power, then she needs to rely on her starts and turns – why she wants to play catch up in a 100 is beyond me.
As for KH, I think her basic fundamentals are stronger than Missy’s, AND she is alot stronger as well.