2014 Commonwealth Games: Day 2 finals preview – defending champs face tough tests

Day 2 Finals – 2014 Commonwealth Games

• Finals start at 7PM Glasgow time; 2PM US East Coast time, 2AM Sydney time, 8PM South Africa time
• Men’s Semi-Finals: 100 breast
• Women’s Semi-Finals: 50 free, 100 back
•  Men’s Finals: 50 fly, 200 free, 400 IM, 100 back, 4×100 free relay
• Women’s Finals: 50 breast, Parasport 100 free, 100 fly
• No major scratches

Day 2 Finals – Event Timeline

All times local Glasgow time

• 19:07 – men’s 50 fly final
  
• 19:12 – women’s 50 breast final
  
• 19:27 – men’s 200 free final
  
• 19:55 – women’s 50 free semifinal 1
• 19:58 – women’s 50 free semifinal 2
  
• 20:05 – men’s 100 breast semifinal 1
• 20:09 – men’s 100 breast semifinal 2
• 20:16 – women’s 100 back semifinal 1
• 20:20 – women’s 100 back semifinal 2
• 20:29 – men’s 400 IM final
• 20:36 – women’s 100 free S8 final
• 21:03 – men’s 100 back final
• 21.09 – women’s 100 fly final
• 21:25 – men’s 4×100 free relay final

Can Aussies 1-2 the men’s 200 free, or will hometown heroes spoil the parade?

Australia holds the top two seeds in the men’s 200 free, with Cameron McEvoy the runaway winner of preliminaries. Thomas Fraser-Holmes takes on a tough 200 free/400IM double tonight, with roughly an hour between events, and is the second seed in the 200, which comes first of the two. But Great Britain has already done some fantastic swimming this week, and holds the next two seeds with Calum Jarvis and Robbie Renwick before the third Aussie, David McKeon. Provided no one else sneaks up on the top 5, it looks like we could see Jarvis, of Wales, and Renwick, swimming in his home country of Scotland, trying to break up the Australian sweep. Fraser-Holmes, Jarvis and Renwick all went within .15 of one another this morning, so the battle should be exceptional in the medal round.

Defending champs facing stiff challenges in a trio of races

In the women’s 50 breast, men’s 100 back and women’s 100 fly, the defending Commonwealth Games champs come in without the top seeds, instead having to come from the outside to knock off some tough challengers.

Australia’s Leiston Pickett won the 50 breast last time around, but will have to go through Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson, the new meet record-holder after last night’s semifinals. The overall Commonwealth record is likely to fall as well, with Atkinson missing it by just .01 last night. On top of that, Canada’s Tera Van Beilen, Scotland’s Corrie Scott and England’s Sophie Taylor could make this thing a multi-horse race.

The men’s 100 back sees defending champ Liam Tancock come in as the two-seed behind Australian Mitch Larkin. Meanwhile, third seed Chris Walker-Hebborn is the Games record-holder after blazing his way through prelims but easing up some in semi-finals. Larkin nearly broke Walker-Hebborn’s mark during semis, making the road to repeat even more difficult for Tancock.

Finally, in the women’s 100 fly, Alicia Coutts will have to kick it into high gear to repeat for Australia. She’s the three-seed after just missing the 58-barrier in semifinals. England’s Siobhan Marie-O’Connor was just .04 away from breaking Coutts’ Games record in semis, and you know she’s got that mark on her mind tonight. Meanwhile Canadian Katerine Savard is a factor as well, going 57.83 in semis for the second seed.

More explosiveness from Ross Murdoch in front of home crowd?

Scotland’s Ross Murdoch exploded for a huge 200 breast win last night, firing up the home fans and giving the Scottish men a signature win to go along with Hannah Miley‘s dominant 400 IM. He’ll have another shot to kindle the Scottish fire tonight, as he’s the second seed in semifinals of the 100 breast behind new Games record-holder Adam Peaty.

Peaty, a Brit himself, and competing for England, went 59.47, the only man under a minute out of prelims. Murdoch will have his work cut out for him after going 1:00.63 to win his heat this morning, but clearly has plenty of speed after that big-time 200. Just behind that duo is New Zealand’s Glenn Snyders and perhaps the most dangerous man in this field, South African Cameron van der Burgh. After some gamesmanship in prelims from the top dogs, things should sort out a bit more tonight and give us a better preview of who’s in the drivers seat heading into the final.