2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- Competition Schedule
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Entry Lists
- Results
And so begins day 5 of 8 of the 2019 FINA World Championships. Today’s morning session is solidly middle-distance, with the lone sprint being the prelims of the women’s 100 freestyle. There is one relay today: the women’s 4 x 200 freestyle.
Day 5 Morning Events:
- Women’s 100 Freestyle – Prelims
- Men’s 200 Backstroke – Prelims
- Women’s 200 Breaststroke – Prelims
- Men’s 200 Breaststroke – Prelims
- Women’s 4 x 200 Freestyle Relay – Prelims
European countries won the medal tally on day 4. The Americas, Asia, and Australia are strong in the events swimming prelims today, meaning that by the end of day 6 finals, the medal table, by region, could veer closer to even.
Day 5 Morning Session’s Top Storylines to Follow:
- Evgeny Rylov is on a hot streak that Ryan Murphy might not be able to put out. Rylov has won two silver medals so far at these World Championships: one in the 400 free relay and one in the 100 backstroke. Rylov is the 2017 World Champion in the 200 back, but last night (day 4), Rylov fired off a massive 51.97 leading off Russia’s mixed medley relay. When Rylov won his silver medal in the 100 back he was only a 52.67, though he was 52.44 in semifinals. Rylov has the world’s fastest time in the 200 back this season, and if he can produce another time like he did leading off the relay, perhaps the butterfly won’t be the only iconic 200 of stroke World Record to fall in Gwangju.
- 2017 and 2019 100 backstroke World Champion Xu Jiayu of China should be another medal-threat in the 200 back. Though better known for his speed, Xu placed 5th in the 200 at the 2017 World Championships in 1:55.26, and won the 2018 Asian Games in 1:53.99, making him the 3rd-fastest performer in the world in 2018 behind Rylov (1:53.36) and Murphy (1:53.57).
- After taking day 4 off, Canada’s Taylor Ruck is expected to be back in the pool for the prelims of the women’s 100 freestyle. Ruck scratched the 200 free on day 3 to focus on the 100 back, but came away from the backstroke without a medal anyways. Ruck might be on the prelims of Canada’s 4 x 200 free relay as well, though the coaches could also save her exclusively for finals.
- World Record holder Sarah Sjostrom and mixed medley relay hero Cate Campbell will race the 100 freestyle prelims as well. Before the day is over, either one of them could have lowered the World Record yet again.
- Siobhan Haughey has broken the Hong Kong record in the 200 freestyle twice already at this World Championships, and contributed a 52.8 100 freestyle split in the women’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay. If Haughey can produce a 52-anything flat start she will stand a great chance of breaking into the championship final tomorrow.
- Speaking of great freestylers, what do we know about Katie Ledecky possibly swimming the prelims of the 4 x 200 relay? Well, so far nothing, but it could happen, either as a trial-run to gauge whether or not she’s fit to swim in the finals and in the prelims of the 800 Friday morning, or as a way of proving she can bounce back and is deserving of a spot on the ‘A’ team in finals.
- Lilly King and Yulia Efimova will go head-to-head again in the women’s 200 breaststroke. In 2017, Efimova won gold and King placed 4th. Since then, King has spent a lot of time practicing for the 200. American teammate Micah Sumrall was the 2018 U.S. National Champion in the 200 breast and 2018 Pan Pacs Champion, so she’s also one to watch.
- Josh Prenot dives in for his one and only race at these World Championships: the men’s 200 breaststroke. Prenot is the 2016 Olympic silver medalist but hasn’t performed quite at the level he realized in 2016. At the 2018 Pan Pacs, Prenot placed 5th in the 200 breast, but was 2:07.28, only .11 off his American Record time. If Prenot can must another 2:07-low in the finals, he should be in contention for a spot on the podium.
- 200 breaststroke World Record holder Ippei Watanabe of Japan will face off against Prenot, 2016 Olympic champion Dmitriy Balandin of Kazakhstan, and perhaps most interesting of all, Russian duo Kirill Prigoda and Anton Chupkov. Chupkov won the gold at the 2017 World Championships, and Prigoda gold at the 2018 Short Course World Championships, also setting a new World Record.
How you gonna do Prenot like that with the picture curse?!?!?! Put Sun Yang on there even tho he isnt swimming today
20 & 30 years on… I’ve been keeping an eye on how the WR holders from 1999 would perform here. All would have finished 8th in finals except the 2 400m free phenoms: Janet Evans 1988 time would have her place 6th, which is remarkable 31 years on; and Thorpe in 1999 would have won here, which is quite phenomenal!
Saw Milaks WR on some normal sports news sites, that’s a win for swimming 👍
It’s everywhere! New York Times even did an article with quotes from Phelps and Milak. Good read
It was on the front page of Yahoo!
Olympic channel is replaying the day 4 finals now!
Great time to relive the pain from that relay
The Cate Campbell drop the mic performance
So food for thought: Milak was 1:53.19 in the 200 fly going into this meet, and went 1:50.73, that’s a 2.17% drop.
If he does the same in the 100 fly he’ll be 50.38.
He also dropped 1.76% off of his 200 fly PB, and if he does the same here that’s a 49.73!
I mean Phelps also went sub 50 in 2009 when he went 1:51.51 so it’s not far fetched to imagine that kind of speed is needed to go a 1:50.73 200
My actual guess for him in the final would be somewhere between those to. You have to imagine he has a lot of speed because i just don’t see any other way he… Read more »
I think Milak will be under 51, although he hasn’t broken 51 since 2017 worlds, where he was focused strictly on sprint butterfly.
He has had much more emphasis on the 200 so I predict around 50.4-50.7
I agree with that, before his 200 fly I didn’t think he’d improve on his 2017 time due to the split focus. I also didn’t expect him to drop 2 seconds off of his 200 PR. Such a drop cannot come simply from an improvement of endurance.The way he swam the 200 fly, how easy his 1:52.9 was, the dude went out in 52.8, and then had enough left in the tank to come back in 57.8. That was easy. In his 200 fly semi it was clear he was cruising and then let loose in the last 50. In the 200 fly final it was like he was just going through the motions, he looked like he cruised the… Read more »
I’m not a huge fan of all the Milak was only focused on the 100 in 2017 so he’ll be slower here theory. He still swam the 200 fly at taper meets that summer, so he clearly was training for the 200 too. Just because he only had the 100 fly at worlds doesn’t mean his previous training base suddenly shifted to sprint.
Maybe I’m missing something he said about never training for the 200 before 2017, but with a 1:53 low at world juniors that summer I kinda doubt it.
I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t go a pb.
I don’t see how Milak doesn’t go a 49…much like no one was ready for the full extent of what was up his sleeve in the 200 fly, I think many are underestimating what is to come in the 100 fly. Not in Tokyo, but NOW. The dude has arrived. And crucially – he has self-belief to spare. This is someone who will step up on the blocks with Dressel genuinely believing the race is his to own.
Are we still talking about Milak? he’s so 2:15 pm.
Interested to see what Wilby and Renshaw do in the 200 Breaststroke, their favoured events, judging from the 100 both are in great form and Loughborough athletes are performing well these champs.
Other news: Andrew Wilson finally got a Wikipedia article. How will this solidification of fame factor into his 200 breaststroke and medley relay split?
How did you figure that out? Did you stalk Wikipedia?
He wrote it. Plus DcSwim IS Andrew Wilson.
He stalks Andrew Wilson
Prediction: Chalmers beats Dressel in the 100m freestyle, someone beats Dressel in the 50m freestyle, Milak beats Dressel in the 100m butterfly, Australia beats USA in the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay, Russia beats USA in the 4x100m medley relay.
And I beat you in SWSW comments
Australia probably won’t field an A team for the mixed free relay as they don’t focus on mickey mouse events.
True..but if they did, would be a walk in the park for em
Depends if dressel lays down a 45 100 free
OMG…..And Cate does a 48