ov, and Aleksei Brianskii slipped into the top seed this morning in the men’s 200 medley relay by topping the second heat of prelims with 1:33.25.
Belarus’s Pavel Sankovich, Ilya Shymanovich, Yauhen Tsurkin, and Anton Latkin formed a bit of a surprise second seed team this morning, with 1:33.48, boosted by a big performance by Shymanovich. He was the second-quickest breaststroker in the field with a 25.92 split (only Johannes Skagius of Sweden was faster with 25.78). Also pivotal in their swim was national record holder Sankovich, who took the early lead with 23.32 to head the field in the backstroke leg.
China’s Xu Jiayu, Yan Zibei, Li Zhuhao, and Yu Hexin grabbed third with 1:33.95, followed by Japan’s Junya Koga, Yoshiki Yamanaka, Takeshi Kawamoto, and Kenta Ito with 1:34.01.
Australia’s Bobby Hurley, Tommy Sucipto, David Morgan, and Brayden McCarthy grabbed fifth with 1:34.24, followed by the American team of Matthew Josa, last night’s 100 IM champion Michael Andrew, Tom Shields, and Paul Powers.
Lithuania grabbed seventh, despite having the fastest freestyle leg in the field from Simonas Bilis (20.80), and Sweden was eighth.
The women’s 200 IM saw a couple of strong performances from the Japanese team in heats three and four. In heat three, Yui Ohashi held off Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Jakobos of Hungary to post 2:08.24. In heat four, Miho Teramura fought with American SCY record-holder Ella Eastin throughout, eventually hitting in with 2:08.14 and falling to Eastin’s 2:07.65.
The final heat saw a battle among Katinka Hosszu of Hungary, Longhorn Madisyn Cox of the USA, and Emily Seebohm of Australia. Hosszu topped the field by a second and a half with 2:05.33, followed by Cox in 2:06.72, and Seebohm in 2:08.30.
Canada’s Sarah Darcel also made the top eight this morning with 2:08.84.
Missing the final were Vien Nguyen of Vietnam (2:10.69) and Hannah Miley of Great Britain (2:09.22).
There were a pair of no shows in heat five from Mireia Belmonte of Spain, presumably not quite recovered from her bronchitis, and Jenna Laukkanen of Finland.
Hungary, Great Britain, Japan, and the USA qualified two men apiece in the men’s 400 IM this morning, with Great Britain’s Olympic fourth-place finisher Max Litchfield heading up the group with 4:03.56. Litchfield will chase down the British record tonight, a 4:01.63 set by Joseph Roebuck in 2009.
Challenging Litchfield will be Hungarian mainstay David Verraszto, who finished in 4:04.43 this morning. Next up this morning were the pair of Americans, Cal’s Olympic silver medalist in the 200 breast Josh Prenot with 4:04.43, and Stanford freshman and Abrahm Devine with 4:04.64 in his first senior international championships.
Hungary’s Gyurta Gergely grabbed fifth with 4:04.88, followed by defending champion Daiya Seto of Japan with $:05.00 and his teammate Takeharu Fujimori with 4:05.83.
The Brits bookended the top eight; Mark Szaranek finished eighth with 4:06.07. Junior world record holding Olympian Brandonn Almeida of Brazil missed the final by just.02 seconds with 4:06.09.
American record holder Kelsi Worrell put up a 56.11 to dominate the field in this morning’s prelims, coming in.64 seconds ahead of the field and.69 off her own American record.
The next two swimmers going into semis tonight were Katerine Savard of Canada and Japan’s age-group wonder Rikako Ikee. Savard outtouched Ikee to win heat 5 to a roar from her own crowd, putting up 56.75 to Ikee’s 56.83. Tonight and tomorrow, Ikee will be chasing down her own junior world record of 58.24 from the Tokyo World Cup in October.
Hungary’s Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu held back until the final wall of the women’s 100 fly, when she kicked it in to chase down American Sarah Gibson out of Texas A&M in the penultimate heat. The pair ended up fourth (56.99), and sixth (57.20), respectively. Coming in between the two in this morning’s results was Brazilian Olympian Daiene Dias with 57.17.
Lu Ying of China, the fourth seed coming into the morning, was a no show in the event.
In a surprising turn of events, Vladimir Morozov of Russia, Chad le Clos of South Africa, and Adam Timmers of Great Britain all failed to qualify for the semifinals of the men’s 100 free. Morozov is the 6th-fastest swimmer in the history of this event, and le Clos also sits in the top 20 all-time performers. This morning, Morozov posted 47.82, le Clos swam 48.31, and Timmers hit in 48.15.
Interestingly, Oussama Sahnoune of Algeria grabbed a surprise heat win in the top circle-seeded heat with 47.70. However, his win in the final heat only placed him 13th overall.
Instead, American Olympic relay gold medalist Blake Pieroni posted the fastest time this morning with 46.76, followed by Yuri Kisil of Canada with 46.79. The pair were the only two under 47. France’s Metella Mehdy was third with 47.13.
Park Tae Hwan set a new South Korean record with 47.19. Also setting a national record was Finland’s Matias Koski by just one one-hundredth of a second, taking down the previous 47.56 with 47.55 to qualify ninth.
American Michael Chadwick, fresh off a relay anchor leg that brought the USA to mixed 200 medley gold on Thursday, qualified 11th with 47.60.
The women’s 50 freestyle could be anyone’s game tonight and tomorrow, with just half a second separating first from sixteenth.
The pair of four-time Olympian Jeannette Ottesen of Denmark and Michelle Williams of Canada held the top slots this morning, posting 24.03 and 24.04 in the pool this morning.
Erika Ferraioli of Italy grabbed the third seed going into tonight with 24.11, tied with 2012 Olympic champion in both the 50 and 100 freestyle Ranomi Kromowidjojo. Kromowidjojo had an underwhelming Olympic performance in Rio, but it was recently revealed that her back injury just before Rio was worse than she and her coach had previously let on.
Also in the packed field tonight will be Silvia di Pietro of Italy (24.21), Menghui Zhu of China (24.30), Etiene Medeiros of Brazil (24.31), and Brittany Elmslie of Australia (24.33).
Age group wonder Rikako Ikee, in the midst of a packed event schedule, also made the semifinals tonight, in a tie with American Madison Kennedy and Australian Emily Seebohm for 12th with 24.49.
This race was a no show for Belarus’s 2012 Olympic silver medalist in both the 50 and 100 free Aliaksandra Herasimenia.
Like the women’s 50 free, the men’s 50 breaststroke came in a tight margin this morning, with about half a second separating first from sixteenth.
Kirill Prigoda of South Africa came in just ahead of Brazil’s Felipe Lima, posting 26.23 to Lima’s 26.26. Slovenia’s Peter Stevens also hit in the top three, swimming the prelim in 26.33.
Close behind was American Olympic bronze medalist in the 100 breaststroke Cody Miller with 26.34, followed by defending world champion Felipe Franca Silva of Brazil in 26.44. World record holder Cameron van der Burgh finished sixth with 26.55, followed by last night’s 100 IM world champion Michael Andrew in 26.56.
The American team of NCAA standouts destroyed the field in the 800 free relay, as Mallory Comerford, Sarah Gibson, Katie Drabot, and Leah Smith came together for 7:41.25, a full five seconds ahead of second-place China. The Louisville star Comerford posted the quickest time of the swimmers in the event with 1:54.63, which was particularly impressive since she was the lead-off swimmer.
Even though Smith is the only swimmer of the group who contributed to the U.S.’s gold medal 800 free relay in Rio, the American mid-distance dominance goes far down the roster of talent, and it should be an easy win for the team tonight.
China’s Zhang Yuhan, Al Yanhan, Dong Jie, and Shen Duo finished second with 7:46