Yang Junxuan Scratches 100 Free Semifinals After Brown and Qingfeng Swim-Off

2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
  • Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
• Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
• Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
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China’s Yang Junxuan scratched the semifinals of the women’s 100 freestyle after qualifying 8th in prelims. Even so, two ties between four swimmers in the prelims resulted in a scratch as well as a swim-off, narrowing the crop of 19 down to the standard 17 swimmers who would advance to the semifinals.

Wait, 17 swimmers?

Yes. 16 semifinalist plus 1 alternate.

Let’s break it down.

1. Emma McKeon (AUS), 52.13 OR
2. Siobhan Haughey (HKG), 52.70
3. Anna Hopkin (GBR), 52.75
4. Cate Campbell (AUS), 52.80
5. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 52.91
6. Penny Oleksiak (CAN0, 52.95
7. Pernille Blume (DEN), 52.96
8. Yang Junxuan (CHN), 53.02
9. Femke Heemskerk (NED), 53.10
10. Kayla Sanchez (CAN), 53.12
11. Abbey Weitzeil (USA), 53.21
12. Michelle Coleman (SWE), 53.53
13. Signe Bro (DEN), 53.54
14. Freya Anderson (GBR), 53.61
15. Charlotte Bonnet (FRA), 53.67
16. Marie Wattel (FRA) / Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED), 53.71
17. —
18. Erika Brown (USA) / Wu Qingfeng (CHN)

Ranomi Kromowidjojo withdrew from her would-be swim-off with France’s Marie Wattel, thereby automatically sending Wattel to the semifinals. Now we’re down to 18 swimmers. One more to cull.

Brown and Qingfeng then faced off in a a swim-off for the alternate position–17th, that is–with Brown coming out ahead, touching 53.51 to 54.47… but then, Junxuan scratched. Now, our top-16 (but really top-17) looks like this:

1. Emma McKeon (AUS), 52.13 OR
2. Siobhan Haughey (HKG), 52.70
3. Anna Hopkin (GBR), 52.75
4. Cate Campbell (AUS), 52.80
5. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 52.91
6. Penny Oleksiak (CAN0, 52.95
7. Pernille Blume (DEN), 52.96
8. Femke Heemskerk (NED), 53.10
9. Kayla Sanchez (CAN), 53.12
10. Abbey Weitzeil (USA), 53.21
11. Michelle Coleman (SWE), 53.53
12. Signe Bro (DEN), 53.54
13. Freya Anderson (GBR), 53.61
14. Charlotte Bonnet (FRA), 53.67
15. Marie Wattel (FRA), 53.71
16. Erika Brown (USA) / Wu Qingfeng (CHN), 53.87
17. Mariia Kameneva (ROC), 53.92 — Alternate

What does all of this mean? It means Brown and Qingfeng swam one more 100 freestyle than they needed to, making their swim-off, ultimately, moot.

Neither Brown nor Qingfeng advanced to the final, finishing in 13th (53.58) and 16th (54.86), respectively.

The top-8 advancing to tomorrow’s final include:

1. Emma McKeon (AUS), 52.32
2. Siobhan Haughey (HKG), 52.40
3. Cate Campbell (AUS), 52.71
4. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE), 52.82
5. Penny Oleksiak (CAN), 52.86
6. Femke Heemskerk (NED), 52.93
7. Abbey Weitzeil (USA), 52.99
8. Anna Hopkin (GBR), 53.11