World Championships, Day 5 Prelims: Absences Evident in Women’s 100 Free
The Paris Olympic final in the women’s 100 freestyle went down as one of the best of the Games, eight star-studded finalists separated by less than a second. The follow-up in Singapore will look much different, though it has the potential to be as entertaining.
The field got a further alteration on Thursday, with Gretchen Walsh scratching as she continues to battle the gastrointestinal illness befalling the Americans.
That means no gold medalist Sarah Sjostrom, who is expecting her first child. No bronze medalist Siobhan Haughey due to injury. No fifth-place Shayna Jack of Australia. No eighth-place Walsh. And a diminished silver medalist Torri Huske, for whom the illness cost an event earlier in the week.
Mollie O’Callaghan is there, though, the 200 free champion in Singapore. And so is Olympic finalist Marrit Steenbergen. And rising stars Roos Vanotterdijk and Sara Curtis.
It’s a busy morning, with several world champions weighing stroke doubles. Pieter Coetze, the 100 back champ, is in action in the 200 back. Anna Elendt, the women’s 100 breast champ, is chasing the 200, where 100 breast silver medalist Kate Douglass is the top seed. And Qin Haiyang is looking to add to his haul of medals with the 200 breast, in which he’s the world record holder.
The session ends with the women’s 800 free relay prelims.
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Women’s 100 freestyle
With the preamble of who isn’t at this World Championships, let’s focus on who is:
Mollie O’Callaghan, in great form with a pair of golds already, who went 53.40 to lead prelims.
Marrit Steenbergen and Sara Curtis, who tied in 53.53 for second in different heats
Veteran Beryl Gastaldello, fifth in 53.56
Oliva Wunsch, the second Aussie, who went 53.74.
Torri Huske is also through to the semifinals, finishing 11th in 53.99. In a race where the top 16 were spread across .98 seconds, she was relatively comfortably through. Daria Klepikova of the Neutral Athletes is the fourth seed. Florine Gaspard of Belgium made it two from that country in the semis, with Roos Vanotterdijk 10th. China has two in the semis, Cheng Yujie eighth and Wu Qingfeng 13th.
Among those missing out were Great Britain’s Freya Anderson in 17th and Taylor Ruck of Canada in a tie for 18th.
Men’s 200 backstroke
The U.S. men very nearly made it two backstroke events at these World Championships with no man advancing to the semifinals much less the finals. Keaton Jones skated into the final by .15 seconds in 15th place, avoiding a repeat of the 100 back in which both Americans missed the top 16 from prelims. One of those swimmers, Jack Aikins, was 24th in the 200. Jones recovered from a disastrous start to his race, and the 1:57.11 for the 16th spot is considerably faster than the 1:57.98 to advance out of prelims at the Paris Olympics last year.
The company that Jones kept shows how difficult the sledding was. In 16th was Pieter Coetze, the 100 back winner. In 17th was Thomas Ceccon, the 100 back gold medalist in Paris. Lukas Martens finished 20th. Jones was fifth in Paris, Coetze seventh, Martens eighth.
So in the present … Blake Tierney of Canada led the way with a time of 1:55.17. He was a tenth up on Great Britain’s Luke Greenbank. Roman Mityukov, the Paris bronze medalist, was third in 1:56.15.
Olympic champion Hubert Kos was just ninth. There’s an Apostolous in the top six, but it’s not silver medalist Apostolos Christou; rather countryman Apostolos Siskos tied for sixth with tied with Kodai Nishiono of Japan.
Women’s 200 breaststroke
Men’s 200 breaststroke
Women’s 800 freestyle relay
