Shanghai 2011 Day 3 Prelims: Phelps Wins Slow Heat, Takes 11th Seed in 200 Fly; Clary Takes 4th

Men’s 50 breaststroke prelims

Felipe Da Silva has improved his skills in the 100 breaststroke, but that hasn’t hurt his power and pure speed in this 50, which has long been his best event. He ended up with the top seed after prelims in 27.19, which is already the fastest time in the world in 2011. It’s not a big surprise to see a World-best in the prelims of these 50 meter races, as it was only about 9-tenths from top seed to not qualifying.

Slovenia’s Martjaz Markic takes the 2nd seed in 27.36, followed by Cal sprint superstar Damir Dugonjic (also of Slovenia) in 27.47. How often do you see two of the top three seeds in a semi-final at the World Championships from Slovenia? Dugonjic looked great on the opening halves of his races in the 100 breaststroke, but faded a bit at the close. In this 50, however, he’s golden, and is already approaching his career-best time.

All of the usual suspects finaled, including Alexander Dale Oen, Mark Gangloff, and Fabio Scozzoli. The biggest name to miss the final was Japan’s Ryo Tateishi, though the 50 isn’t really his specialty.

Full men’s 50 breaststroke results.

Men’s 200 fly prelims

Michael Phelps conquered one hurdle in his preliminary heat, which is he got himself back in the win column. Maybe more importantly, mentally, he beat China’s Wu Peng (1;56.98 – 15th), who has beaten him twice this season. Overall, his time was not spectacular in 1:56.77, which is way off of his season-best this year, but he did successfully make the semi-final as the 11th seed. Peng was probably disappointed in his finish, but did well to make a semi-final out of a very slow heat.

His teammate Tyler Clary took the 4th overall seed in 1:55.95, which is already almost as fast as he went at Pan Pac’s last year. This is our first glimpse of Clary, and things seem to be going well so far. That’s notable, because we didn’t get to see Clary race all that often in 2011.

The top seed was Dinko Jukic of Austria in 1:55.26, which makes him the 2nd-fastest in the world so far this year. That, by almost a second and a half, is the fastest that Jukic has ever been in textile, and it will be interesting to see how much more he has in the semi-final.

A big surprise was Brazil’s Leonardo de Deus, who came from lane 1 in the final heat to take the 2nd overall seed in 1:55.55. That’s a career-best by almost a second, and he upended his countrymate, and Brazilian Record holder, Kaio Almeida, who qualified 14th.

Some questioned whether young Hungarian Bence Biczo burned his taper early, with Hungarian Nationals and European Juniors all taking place in the last month. So-far, he looks to have held it through, with his 3rd seed in 1:55.71. Just like he did at Nationals, Biczo beat his much-more accomplished countrymate Laszlo Cseh (1:56.39 – 8th), though Cseh looked extremely strong through 150 meters before fading on the last length. Cseh, though, might have something left to give, as he took a big lead taking fewer strokes than anyone else in the field.

All of the usual suspects made the final. Takeshi Matsuda is 5th (1:55.98), though he swam a very controlled, even race.  Florida Gator/South African swimmer Sebastian Rousseau was the first swimmer out in 17th at 1:57.15.

Top 5 semi-finalists – Jukic, De Deus, Biczo, Clary, Matsuda.

Full Results of men’s 200 fly prelims.

Women’s 200 free prelims

Federica Pellegrini did what Federica Pellegrini does in this prelim. She sat back through 150 meters, and then on the last length slungshot herself past the field and to a great finish in 1:56.87, which gave her the number two overall seed headed into the semifinals. The only swimmer to better her was the USA’s Allison Schmitt in 1:56.66. The two won’t meet until the semi-final, but their matchup will be a pairing of two entirely different theories on swimming the 200 free.

Schmitt takes her race out very hard, and will probably be in the lead going into the last turn, but Pellegrini closes like nobody else we’ve ever seen (except maybe Shiwen Ye in the 200 IM!). Presuming the two get through the semifinal safely, this is going to make one heck of a matchup in the final.

Also in the top 5 seeds are the two Australians, who currently sit atop the World Rankings: Bronte Barrat (1:57.37) and Kylie Palmer (1:57.42). Splitting the pair was Hungary’s Agnes Mutina (1:57.40) as the 4th seed. Mutina’s great swim, along with a final from Evelyn Verraszto, could spell a top-4 finish from the Hungarian 800 free relay.

Germany’s Silke Lippok continued a trend of some gutsy performances by young swimmers, as she led most of the final heat before slowing up to take a 7th seed in 1:57.53. This harkens back to Yannick Agnel’s swim in the men’s 400 free and Sebastian Verschuren’s prelims swim in the men’s 200 free, to name a few, where young swimmers have been extremely aggressive in early heats. If Lippok can do that again in the semi-final and final, it could become more and more beneficial to her as the heats go on.

This is not Rebecca Adlington’s best race, but despite appearing to recover from her bout with some stomach issues over the weekend when she took silver in the 400 final, she failed to make the semi-final in this race. She finished 24th in 1:59.40. China’ Yi Tang finished 15th in 1:58.30. Slovenia’s Sara Isakovic, defending Olympic silver medalist, qualified 10th.

Full Women’s 200 free results.

Men’s 800 free prelims

Perhaps its an indication of a weak field in 2007, or perhaps its a sign that swimmers are beginning to take these non-Olympic events more seriously, but as compared to 2007 (the last untainted year) this prelim was incredibly fast. In 2007, the top seed after prelims was a 7:50.72. In 2011, that wouldn’t even have made the final.

In fact, the results from this year’s prelim was actually fairly similar to the prelims times from the 800 in 2009 in a polyurethane suit.

Still, the top swimmers all looked to have more to give. China’s Sun Yang, Pal Joensen of the Faroese Islands, and Ryan Cochrane of Canada all swam 7:45’s to absorb the middle lanes in the final. Hungary’s Gergo Kis, who is really moving up the World heirarchy in the past year, will be 4th in 7:48.33.

Tunisia’s Ous Mellouli, who trains at USC, will be 5th in 7:48.86, followed by the USA’s Peter Vanderkaay (7:49.13), Sebastien Rouault (7:49.43), and Chad La Tourette (7:49.94).

Samuel Pizzetti, who entered the meet as one of two swimmers under 7:50, couldn’t repeat that time and missed the final in 9th place. Mads Glaesner opened very quickly, but couldn’t hold on and fell back to 11th. Australian Ryan Napoleon was 13th in 7:56.84. All three of those swimmers should be medal contenders in the longer 1500m race.

Full Results from the men’s 800 free prelims.

Session Analysis

The women’s 200 free was the most telling amongst the prelims swims on the day. Schmitt and Pellegrini both looked awesome, and on day 4, this should be the final to watch. Australia and Hungary were the only two teams to score two semifinalists in the race. The Australians looked the best, at #3 and #5, and have the advantage over the Hungarians that their 4th swimmer is likely to be much better than Hungary’s, who are three-strong to a great relay. The American 800 relay has the caveat that their #2 freestyler, Dana Vollmer, wasn’t entered in this race individually. China’s Tang wasn’t as fast as I expected her to be, and if the defending Champions are going to challenge the Americans and Australians, it’s not clear where that’s going to come from at this point.

It was also great to see 2008 silver medalist Sara Isakovic make the semi-final in 10th at 1:58.01. The Slovenian/Cal Bear swimmer was even more shocking in that in 2008, she was swimming in a full-textile suit, so she should have been one of the best-poised coming out of the polyurethane era. But until now, she’s had trouble climbing back towards the top of the world, so that swim was great to see.

The New Zealanders (specifically Lauren Boyle and Daniel Snyders) continued to swim awesomely. Gangloff, Clary, and the distance group (Vanderkaay and La Tourette) are looking to carry the Americans to the top of the medal table with some great prelims performances.

Finals will begin tonight at 6 PM Shanghai time. In honor of increasing international audience, that translates to:

• 8 PM Sydney Time
• 6 AM New York Time
• 11 AM London Time
• 12 PM noon Johannesburg Time
• 2 PM Moscow Time