2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The day 2 prelims session on the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka was comparatively skinny, that includes heats of the ladies’s 100 again, males’s 100 again, ladies’s 100 breast, males’s 200 free, and the ladies’s 1500 free. Although there have been solely 5 occasions this morning, there was nonetheless lots to overreact about.
RUTA MEILUTYTE WILL NOT BE STOPPED
If somebody had advised me we had been going to see a 1:04 in prelims of the ladies’s 100 breast earlier than the meet began, I might have thought they had been loopy. Why would they go that quick? We all know going into the occasion {that a} low 1:06 goes to securely make it via to semis.
Effectively, Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte knew that getting in as properly, and evidently, she determined she didn’t care and threw down a blistering 1:04.67 anyway. It’s the Eighth-fastest 100 breast of all-time, coming in simply 0.54 seconds off Lilly King‘s World File of 1:04.13. Moreover, the swim was simply 0.32 seconds off Meilutyte’s profession better of 1:04.35, which she swam again on the 2013 World Champs to set what was then the World File, till King would come alongside and break it a number of years later.
The simple conclusion is that Meilutyte is dealing with a fairly gentle schedule at this meet, and subsequently determined to go for it prelims as a result of why not? However, what if that’s probably not the case, and Meilutyte really does have extra left within the tank for the following two rounds? It’s believable. Since her return to the game, Meilutyte has been steadily bettering, to the purpose the place she already clocked a brand new profession finest within the 50 breast final summer time. Why couldn’t she additionally go a private finest within the 100 breast a 12 months later?
I pose all these inquiries to say this: I believe Ruta Meilutyte goes to reclaim the ladies’s 100 breast World File, both in semifinals tonight or in tomorrow’s ultimate. If she had been to do it, Meilutyte could be reclaiming the World File 10 years after she initially set it. The truth is, I’m feeling daring, so I’ll take it a bit additional. I believe Meilutyte will turn into the primary lady to go beneath 1:04 within the 100 breast. We’ve already seen some beautiful World Data in Fukuoka, why not add this one to the record?
THE UNITED STATES IS IN TROUBLE(?)
This might not be that a lot of an overreaction, actually. In fact, as we’ve already reported, yesterday was the primary time in over 20 years that the U.S. went with out profitable a gold medal on the primary day of a World Championships. Now, that being stated, the People weren’t actually anticipated to win any of these occasions, besides perhaps the boys’s 4×100 free, however even that I’m not so certain about. Nonetheless, it was no less than a bit little bit of a down day for the U.S.
Effectively, day 2 prelims was a blended bag. There have been good swims, after all. Luke Hobson and Kieran Smith seemed nice within the males’s 200 free prelims. Katie Ledecky did Katie Ledecky issues within the ladies’s 1500 prelims. Regan Smith, Katharine Berkoff, Lilly King, and Ryan Murphy all had stable morning swims of their occasions as properly. Nonetheless, there have been two swims that basically caught out, and never in a great way.
First up, Hunter Armstrong very almost missed advancing to the semifinal of the boys’s 100 again. Armstrong got here in sixteenth this morning, swimming a 53.94. He made it into semis by simply 0.01 seconds. It’s straightforward to say that Ryan Murphy seemed good this morning so it’s nice, however it’s not nice. The World File holder within the 50 again, who can also be the #6 100 backstroker in historical past, shouldn’t be swimming 2 seconds off his PB and making semifinals by the pores and skin of his enamel. That simply shouldn’t be taking place. We’d be taking a look at David Popovici a bit sideways if he dove in for the boys’s 100 free prelims later this week and went a high-48, which is the equal to Armstrong’s swim this morning. On condition that, I don’t see why we shouldn’t be simply as crucial of Armstrong’s swim this morning.
It wasn’t simply Armstrong, nonetheless. Within the following occasion, the ladies’s 100 breast, defending Olympic Champion Lydia Jacoby got here in 14th with a 1:06.71. That’s simply one other instance of an oddly off swim from a star U.S. swimmer, one who can also be skilled.
We may lump Katie Grimes’ 1500 this morning into that class as properly, however that was extra of a so-so swim in my view. That’s a protracted race, and Grimes was solely a handful of seconds behind the second-place finisher this morning, so I’m much less involved about Grimes than Armstrong or Jacoby. That being stated, the truth that Grimes was sitting behind a bunch of swimmers all through that race and simply couldn’t appear to shut the hole on them wasn’t terribly encouraging.
In fact, each Armstrong and Jacoby could have an opportunity to bounce again tonight in semifinals, however their swims this morning simply mark extra in a rising line of unhealthy swims from Staff USA. Let’s not neglect that Shaine Casas completed twenty ninth within the prelims of the 50 fly yesterday. Neither of the People made it to the ultimate within the males’s 400 free both.
It might be very believable that the U.S. would additionally undergo day 2 with out profitable a gold medal, if not for Kaylee McKeown’s DQ within the ladies’s 200 IM, which has actually cleared the trail for both Kate Douglass or Alex Walsh to win that race tonight.
CHINA WILL WIN THE MEN’S 4×100 MEDLEY RELAY
This one is humorous as a result of we had debated selecting China to win the boys’s 4×100 medley relay forward of the beginning of the meet anyway. By means of the primary 3 classes of the meet, China, notably the Chinese language males’s workforce, is trying unimaginable. Qin Haiyang is coming into tonight’s ultimate of the boys’s 100 breast because the clear favourite, having swum a 57.82 within the semifinals. He was the sooner man within the semis yesterday by simply shy of a full second. That in itself is a large benefit for China on the medley relay.
The factor that has pushed me over the sting is Xu Jiayu‘s prelims swim within the males’s 100 again this morning. Jiayu seemed sturdy this morning as he sped to a 52.87, marking the quickest time of the morning and the one swim beneath 53 seconds. With Italy’s Thomas Ceccon trying so off in prelims this morning, and Jiayu being fairly a bit sooner than American Ryan Murphy as properly, it’s now trying very attainable that China may have the quickest backstroker and breaststroker on the boys’s 4×100 medley.
With it trying like China might be heating the 200m change with the lead in that relay, it modifications the maths a bit bit. Whereas the fly leg might be a bit little bit of a gap for China, the prospect of getting out to the lead and giving their flyer clear water is a giant benefit. On high of that, there’s no Caeleb Dressel to swim fly on the U.S. relay, which has traditionally been a difference-making leg for the People.
With Pan Zhanle set to anchor China’s relay, they’ve a dependable low-47 break up to financial institution on to deliver them residence. The extra I give it some thought, the extra certain I’m that China goes to win that relay on the ultimate day of the meet.
