All-told, relative to how well attended Sunday evening sessions typically are at Pro Swim Series meets, there were relatively few scratches for Friday’s finals session in Charlotte on Monday.
Only a handful of swimmers who were qualified for A finals have opted to skip their races, and some haven’t necessarily left the meet altogether.
The biggest name sitting out is Brazilian Cesar Cielo, who dropped out of the 100 free finals. Cielo has only hung on to finals entries in two of his four individual events so far in Charlotte, the 50 free and 50 fly. Cielo was the 7th-fastest 100 freestyler in prelims with a 49.82, and that bumps Conor Dwyer into the A-Final. Dwyer will be one of just three Americans in that A Final.
Brazil does have an entry in the 400 medley relay for finals, and Cielo is likely to swim in that race.
Ryan Lochte, with back-to-back A-Finals in the 200 IM and 200 backstroke, has held on to both of those entries, including a top seed in the 200 IM. Michael Phelps, who is swimming in the B-Final of the 200 IM and 100 free, has also kept his entries.
Melanie Margalis, who has swum very well all weekend in Charlotte, dropped out of the 200 backstroke, but the move was not to get an early flight home. She is still racing the 200 IM A-Final as the 2nd seed and the 100 free B-Final. Dropping the 200 backstroke will give her a hint more rest between the two swims.
Auburn undergrad Joe Patching is scratching the A-Final of the 200 backstroke, where he was 5th-fastest in the heats with a 2:01.06. That bumps his SEC rival Jay Litherland into the A-Final (2:04.41).
Kelsi Worrell and Jessica Hardy both are dropping the 100 free as the 8th and 9th seeds. For Worrell, that means her meet is over, while Hardy will challenge Alia Atkinson as the #2 seed in the women’s 50 breaststroke final.
That women’s 50 breaststroke was the hardest-hit final, as three of the top 8 qualifiers have scratched the final: Molly Hannis, Andrea Cottrell, and Hilda Luthersdottir.
The finals session will start at 6PM Eastern Time.
Ddias thanks for the Brazilian expert commentary. I wanted to ask you guys how fast do you think Cielo would have gone at his prime in the current suits. His 46.9 100free and 20.9 50free are incomprehensible times. What suit was that set in? Do you think anyone can ever beat them again without a tech suit? Obrigado.
Hank,
I have no doubts, the suits time will get down, and I think BOTH(50 free and 100free) will be story till the end of 2020.The new generation of youngsters are amazing.I have a hard time predicting what time a guy like Sedov will do in 4 years.
It is hard to say, but Cielo have a much better middle event(in 50free) than his suit years.The problem:His start went downhill from 2012 and beyond.IF he had his 2010 start, he would be around 21s very low in 50free.Remembering:His first 15 meters in 2011 was 5.11, in 2013 was 5.28(very bad). In PanPacs, it was near 5.0s.That is lot of difference in 50free.
I mean HISTORY! damn…
As a point of reference I’d also use 0.5s in a 50, and .9s in a 100. My take is that Cielo’s body type was one that benefitted more so from the suits, which accentuated upper arm strength. I think some like 21.4low or 21.3high is therabouts what he did in the 50. Ditto 47.9 in the 100. These are in line with his best times since.
I don’t understand why he would scratch. It’s one of two events that he’s a contender in.
Justin,
Cielo will not contest 100free at big meets any more.His 100free focus is only for relays.He made 48.53 closing relay today.
Why not just swim it? It’s just one max out 100. Probably good training to do two of those on 30 minutes rest (If you include the relay).
His training is all towards sprints.He wasn’t going to be much better than his 49.8 time.Don’t fool yourself because his 48.6 and now his 48.53 on relays. Cielo has one of the best relay starts in the World, sometimes near 1.5s faster than his individual time.He did that a lot in several Maria Lenk trophies in the past, now you are seeing in US waters.
I’m glad Natalie Coughlin is swimming tonight instead of leaving to catch an early flight, and I’m glad Michael Phelps is sticking to his program and continuing to try his best!
I wonder if Cielo will swim Worlds 4×100 medley prelims aiming a slot in finals.