The lane assignments for Day 1’s prelims session of the 2015 FINA World Championships have been released and a few surprises came along with them.
First, in the women’s 400m freestyle event, Lotte Friis from Denmark is absent from the prelims heat sheets. Friis was seeded 12th with her time of 4:06.83, but that mark was from 2014 at the Pro Swim Series in Santa Clara. The Danish dynamo’s fastest outing of 2015 was the 4:07.17 she clocked this past June, ironically at this year’s version of the same Santa Clara meet. Friis is no doubt saving her strength for the 800m freestyle and 1500m freestyle events, the races in which she is much more of a threat. Friis earned a silver medal in the 800 at the 2013 World Championships, runner-up only to American Katie Ledecky’s world record-breaking swim. Friis also earned silver behind Ledecky in the 1500m freestyle at 2013 Worlds.
The biggest surprise for the men also comes in the 400m freestyle event, with Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri pulling himself out of the event, according to the prelims heat sheets. Paltrinieri was seeded 19th in this event with an entry time of 3:49.30, almost 7 seconds behind leader, Australian Mack Horton’s 3:42.84. As with Friis, Paltrinieri can do the most damage in the 800m free and 1500m free races, where he comes in as the top seed in both events.
Scratches in the women’s 100m butterfly event came in the form of Sweden’s Louise Hansson and Israel’s Amit Ivry, who sat as the 18th and 30th seeds, respectively. Neither was a huge threat in the event, as the leaders come in with times in the 56.-57.range, while both Hansson and Ivry registered times of 58. Plus, both women are already swimming the 200m IM event scheduled for the same day, so they opted for their stronger event to start off Worlds. Hansson is ranked 17th and Ivry 30th in the 200 IM event.
Other notable scratches include:
- Brazil’s Leonardo De Deus has scratched the 400m freestyle. He was the 22nd seed with a time of 3:49.62. De Deus is still slated to swim the 200m backstroke and 200m butterfly.
- Anh Vien Nguyen (Vietnam) is also a scratch from the women’s 400m freestyle, but is still scheduled to swim the 200m free, 200m backstroke, 200m IM and 400m IM events.
I dont think Paltrinieri ever seriously meant to swim the 400 at Worlds … He is almost an impostor in that race. He is a marvelous 1500 free swimmer and an extremely good 800 free swimmer, and that’s it. He just lacks the speed base to go shorter than these distances.
Is Paltrinieri’s withdrawal going to be his advantage over the likes of Horton and Sun Yang in the longer distances.. Fresher legs so to speak..
Smart decision from both distance swimmers.
Their best medal chances are in the 800 free and the 1500 free. Conserve your energy.
Friis did the same thing in 2013. I wouldn’t read anything negative into it.
i have a funny feeling it might be a long week for Friis. hopefully not, but the scratch to me means not very confident.