2017 Mare Nostrum Monaco Day 2 Prelims: The Brits Are Here

2017 MARE NOSTRUM TOUR – MONACO

• June 10-11, 2017
• Monaco
• LCM
• Psych sheets
• Prelims 9am/Finals 5pm (GMT +2)
• Meet central
• Meet Preview
• Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
• Results

The first Mare Nostrum Tour stop is proving to be a solid preview of this July’s World Championships, with elite talent making their marks in the Monaco pool. Yesterday we saw Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom fire off the top 100m butterfly time in the world with a monster 56.20 and the Olympic gold medalist is now on her way to perhaps taking the 100m freestyle race as well.

This morning Sjostrom led the stacked field, collecting a meet record along the way with her top seeded effort of 53.30. She’s been as fast as 52.54 at April’s Stockholm Open and continues to fire off eye-popping speed at will. However, tonight, she’ll need to fend off teammate Michelle Coleman who sits as the 2nd seed in 54.61, along with the always-threatening Campbell sisters of Australia. Cate Campbell lurks 5th in 55.25, with Bronte Campbell solid in 3rd in 54.66.

Another meet record fell this morning, courtesy of Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu. After crushing multiple events yesterday, including a huge 400m IM mark of 4:34.12, she hit the 200m IM hard with a big 2:09.93. With her primary rival, British Olympic silver medalist Siobhan-Marie O’Connor in this morning’s field, Hosszu wanted to establish herself as the top dog headed into tonight’s final. SMOC cruised to a 2nd seeded 2:13.84 to acquire a lane next to the Iron Lady for tonight.

After flight complications that delayed the British squad yesterday, James Guy was in the water today in two events. Missing the 200m fly yesterday, Guy took full advantage of the 100m fly field today, touching in 53.09 for the top seed. Belarusian swimmer Yauhen Tsurkin was right behind in 53.53, while Hungary’s Olympian Laszlo Cseh entered tonight’s final as the 5th seed in 54.33.

Guy’s 2nd race was the 200m freestyle, the event he won at the 2015 World Championships. Guy claimed the 5th seed this morning in a comfortable 1:50.68, while a trio of Aussies took the top 3 positions. Yesterday’s 400m freestyle silver medalist Mack Horton was the only sub-1:50 swimmer on the morning, touching in 1:49.49, with Bond University athlete Cameron McEvoy right behind in 1:50.04. Their 2017 World Championships squadmate, Alexander Graham, also made his presence known with a 1:50.36 as the 3rd seed.

During tonight’s finals we’ll also be treated to the final 2 rounds of each of the 50m sprint contests. We’ll first see the fields narrowed down from 4 to 2, then finally to a field of just two for a head-to-head battle.

Additional Race Highlights:

• Japan’s Suzuka Hasegawa is the 200m butterfly top seed in 2:10.72. Olympic silver medalist in the event, Aussie Maddie Groves sits 3rd in 2:11.08, with Hosszu 4th in 2:11.55.
• Aussie Mitch Larkin easily claimed the pole position in the men’s 200m backstroke with a morning mark of 2:00.60.
• 3 women notched 1:00 times in the 100m backstroke in prelims, led by Aussie Olympian Emily Seebohm‘s 1:00.62. Hosszu was next in 1:00.78, while Russia’s Anastasia Fesikova clocked 1:00.98 for 3rd seed.
• Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki charged to the wall first in 1:00.85 in the men’s 100m breaststroke, but will meet Russian Kirill Prigoda (1:01.37), Bralizian Felipe Lima (1:01.70) and South African Cameron van der Burgh (1:02.30) in the final.
• Taylor McKeown of Australia earned lane 4 with a 2:28.12 in the 200m breaststroke, but Russian Yulia Efimova won’t give up easily having already won the 100m breast yesterday. She claimed the 4th seed this morning in 2:32.19.