Shanghai Day 7; 5 Things to Watch From Worlds

We’re headed into the stretch-run of the World Championships with only two days to go. By now, we think most of you are probably familiar with the schedule, but if not, check out the full timezone breakdown for prelims in finals from our day 4 preview here.

Days 6 and 7 will be “sprint days” in Shanghai. On day 6, in the evening session, 5 of the 8 individual events will be 50m races. That will be countered by prelims of the men’s 1500 at the end of the morning, and the exciting women’s 800 final later on in the day.

We’ll also see our final women’s relay of the day: the women’s 400 medley. The Americans were probably slight favorites in this race coming into the meet, but with Vollmer’s gold in the 100 fly and the explosive emergence of 16-year old Missy Franklin, they look even stronger.

1. Last chances to see Missy – Swim fans will get their final two chances to see Missy Franklin, who has moved herself from star status to superstar status with an American Record and two textile bests so far, on day 7 of the meet. She’ll swim the 200 backstroke final, where anyone else in the field will have to swim a personal best to even hope to challenge her. Then, presumably, the Americans will use her on the 400 medley relay (how could they not with how she’s been swimming). There’s been some debate about whether you put her on the backstroke or freestyle legs, with Natalie Coughlin on the opposite, but after seeing Coughlin’s individual 100 freestyle and backstroker, it seems clear that Missy should be the freestyler and Coughlin the backstroker. Though, it’d be great to see what Franklin can do in a 100 back, wouldn’t it?

2. Men’s 50 free final wide open – Day 6’s evening session will feature the men’s 50 free final, which is incredibly wide open. If you asked 10 different people their picks, even after seeing the semifinals, you’d probably get 12 different answers – which is how the 50 should be. The most popular choices for medals will likely be Cesar Cielo of Brazil, Nathan Adrian of the United States, and Gideon Louw of South Africa. But the man who surprised to take the top seed after semifinals is Brazil’s Bruno Fratus, who recently spent  a week with Auburn’s Brett Hawke, and is already showing huge dividends with a career-best time. Don’t count him out just because he’s young and new on the scene.

3. Women’s 800 final – Several swimmers really started to turn things around in the prelims of this 800 free, notably top seed Rebecca Adlington and third seed Chloe Sutton, who both looked much stronger in this race than they have earlier in the meet. In between the two will be Denmark’s Lotte Friis, who already won the women’s 1500 free, as she looks to continue an unprecedented run of success for her nation at this meet: they’ve already got two gold medals, which is more than the rest of the World Championships combined.

4. Michael Phelps in Men’s 100 Fly – Michael Phelps should be the leader in the men’s 100 fly final, which is his last individual race of the meet, as he seeks his 3rd gold medal of the meet. With many medal contenders failing to make the final, there should be a great battle for the silver and the bronze. The other American, Tyler McGill, has been two-year season best times in each of the first two rounds, and will be trying to do it again. Australia’s Geoff Huegill is so huge and strong that he’s always in a butterfly race, and Japan’s Takuro Fujii and even Kenya’s Jason Dunford will be up there as well.

5. Women’s 50 Fly – The women’s 50 fly final will take place on day 7, and feature one of the greatest women’s sprinters of her generation, Therese Alshammar. For all she’s done in this sport, it seems surprising that she’s only got one long course World Championship in the 17 years that she’s been competing in this event. At almost 34 years old, she seems to be only getting better as she gets older, and she’s a big-time favorite in this 50 fly. Right behind her will be the Netherlands’ Inge Dekker and Alshammar’s teammate Sarah Sjoestrom.