2017 FINA World Championships: Day 4 Prelims Preview

2017 FINA WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, July 23rd – Sunday, July 30th
• Budapest, Hungary
• LCM (50m)
• Full Competition Schedule
• Meet Info
• Psych Sheets
• Omega Results
• Pick ’em Contest
• Event-by-Event Previews

The fourth preliminary session from Budapest will feature four individual events, along with the first of our mixed relays. The 50 back and 200 fly will be contested for women, the 100 free and 200 IM for men, and the mixed 4×100 medley will wrap things up.

The women’s 50 back will lead us off, with some swimmers coming in with the hot hand after the 100 back, and others looking to rebound after poor performances.

The first name that comes to mind is Canadian Kylie Masse, who broke the eight-year-old 100 back world record on day 3 in 58.10. She holds the Canadian record at 27.67, and will swim in the 7th of 7 heats alongside top seed Fu Yuanhui (CHN), Holly Barratt (AUS) and Georgia Davies (GBR).

Fu is the defending champion, and also won silver in 2013, but is coming off a rough performance in the 100 back where she missed the final after winning Olympic bronze last summer.

Heat 6 will have 100 back silver and bronze medalists Kathleen Baker and Emily Seebohm, along with 2015 silver medalist Etiene Medeiros and 2007 silver medalist Aliaksandra Herasimenia.

Chinese teenager Wang Xueer, seeded 3rd overall at 27.55, will swim in heat 5 with U.S. Trials winner Hannah Stevens and the 2011 world champion Anastasia Fesikova.

The men’s 100 free brings great intrigue after what we saw in the 400 free relay.

The first circle-seeded heat will be centered by Olympic silver medalist Pieter Timmers, along with Mehdy Metella and Luca Dotto. Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece will be out in lane 8, but is potentially dangerous after splitting 47.87 in the 400 free relay. Joseph Schooling will also swim after a solid 5th place finish in the 50 fly.

The 11th of 12 heats will have Americans Nathan Adrian and Caeleb Dressel in the middle of the pool. Dressel is coming off an American record performance of 47.26 leading off the relay, while Adrian also looked good, anchoring the U.S. team to gold in 47.25. Brazil’s Marcelo Chierighini had the fastest split of anyone in the field at 46.85, and Russia’s Vladimir Morozov (47.52) was solid as well. They’ll have lanes 6 and 3.

Not to be forgotten, Hungarian Richard Bohus will be out in lane 9 after splitting 47.21 in the 400 free relay, anchoring the host nation to the bronze medal.

Australian Cameron McEvoy will have lane 4 in the last heat, still looking to find his groove after a so-so performance in the relay. After a solid lead-off of 48.04 in the relay prelims, McEvoy split an identical time with a takeover in the final. He’ll have to be faster if he wants to win a medal, which he did two years ago, taking silver.

Others swimming in the last heat will be Duncan Scott, who became the first British man ever under 48 seconds this year in 47.90, and Gabriel Santos (BRA), Jack Cartwright (AUS), and Dominik Kozma (HUN). All three of them led off their relays teams in 48.30, 48.34 and 48.26 respectively. Another name to keep an eye on is Cuban Hanser Garcia, who has magically reappeared this year after finishing 7th at the Olympics back in 2012.

There will be just 4 heats in the women’s 200 fly, with Olympic champion Mireia Belmonte and home crowd favorite Katinka Hosszu swimming in the last heat. It will be interesting to see if Hosszu sees this event through, as Kazan saw her place 13th in the semis shortly after swimming the 200 free final. She will swim that final once again tomorrow night, so we’ll see what she decides after the heats. 17-year-old American Dakota Luther will make her Worlds debut from lane 1.

German Franziska Hentke will have lane 4 in the third heat, flanked by Australian Brianna Throssell and the other Hungarian, Liliana Szilagyi. The first circle-seeded heat will see Japanese youngster Suzuka Hasegawa alongside U.S. Trials champ Hali Flickinger.

The men’s 200 IM is a relatively wide open event with both Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte not in the lineup. Olympic bronze medalist Wang Shun headlines heat 3, and German Philip Heintz takes heat 4. Heintz exploded this year for a best of 1:55.76, two seconds faster than he’s ever been. He’ll swim alongside American Abrahm DeVine, who was a surprise qualifier at U.S. Trials in 1:56.79.

The last heat is by far the most stacked, with all three of the 400 IM Olympic medalists from last summer: Daiya Seto, Kosuke Hagino and Chase Kalisz. Hagino and Kalisz have yet to swim in Budapest, but Seto has looked very strong thus far through the 200 fly semis.

Lineups for the mixed relays will be announced prior to the session, but it should be a fun event with plenty of entries. China and Japan should make some noise right from the hop in heat 1, and then we’ll see the following contenders in the other heats: U.S., Canada (heat 2), Russia (heat 3), and Great Britain, Hungary, Australia (heat 4).

You can see all the start lists for day 4 prelims here.