Two meet records fell during the prelims session of Day 1 of the Short Course World Championships as Katinka Hosszu set new standards in the 100 back and the 400 IM.
Hosszu was a 55.70 in the women’s 100 back to erase a 4 year-old record held by Natalie Coughlin. The swim easily handed her the top seed entering semifinals tonight as her nearest competitor is Australia’s Emily Seebohm in a 56.59.
Comparative splits for the records are as follows
2010 – Coughlin – 27.13, 56.08 (28.95)
2014 – Hosszu – 27.21, 55.70 (28.49)
Hosszu has been a 55.34 already this year from the Hong Kong stop of the World Cup circuit back in the end of September, so it is very likely that we will see this meet record broken again before podium places are handed out. Her strength comes from her closing speed, as very few competitors are able to split a sub-29 second back half in this race.
Hosszu’s second record of the day came in the 400 IM, where she absolutely obliterated the field and the previous record from 2012 by Hannah Miley (4:23.14). Hosszu turned in a 4:21.05 this morning to give her an over 5 second margin over the rest of her competitors.
Comparative splits for the records are as follows:
2012 – Miley – 29.48, 1:02.60 (33.12), 1:36.14 (33.54), 2:09.48 (33.34), 2:46.06 (36.58), 3:23.26 (37.50), 3:54.03 (30.77), 4:23.14 (29.10)
2014 – Hosszu – 27.96, 59.71 (31.75), 1:32.96 (33.25), 2:05.32 (32.36), 2:42.92 (37.60), 3:21.51 (38.59), 3:51.87 (30.36), 4:21.05 (29.18)
Hosszu is not far off her own world record time of 4:20.83 from August of this year. Although the 400 IM will be her third swim tonight, we have seen Hosszu tackle multiple events within a single session time and time again, so we can be hopeful for a new global standard after her swim in finals.
The other record-breaking swim of the night came from Great Britain’s Adam Peaty, who crushed the British national record in the 100 breast with a 57.02. Peaty’s previous best had been a 58.54 from last year’s European Short Course Championships in December and he took a sizeable chunk off that record with this morning’s swim.
The previous national record had belonged to Michael Jamieson from the Duel in the Pool Championships last December. Jamieson’s splits for that race are unavailable, but Peaty was out in a 26.72 before coming home in a 30.73. Notably, that 50 split for Peaty is just 0.02 seconds off Andrew Weatheritt’s national record in the 50 breast of 26.70.
You would think so, especially with the 400 and 800 free coming up in a couple days, among many other events, but this is her usual pattern. Occasionally she ends up fading a bit in one or two of her evening swims, but she doesn’t seem to care and appears to enjoy the personal challenge of it. Fearless.
Wouldn’t it make more sense for Katinka to lay up on the morning races a little so they could put her in the 4×200 prelims?
She made finals by 10 SECONDS in the 400 IM, and Hungary’s 4×200 barely stuck in 8th.
Amazing racing, cant wait for finals!
2 points – 1; its Darren Mew not Pew and 2; I am sure Andrew Weatheritt has the British 50 record at 26.70 from June of this year.
Thanks for the correction! I don’t know why Weatheritt’s record was not updated on FINA’s rankings.
LOL fixed!