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Women’s 50 fly semifinals
China’s Lu Ying claimed the first semifinal heat with a strong 26.05 to smoke the field. That swim vaulted her to 10th in the world in the event along with Natalia Lovtsova and Emily Seebohm.
Lu will be taking a run at Aleksandra Gerasimenya’s 2013 meet record of 25.84.
Russia’s Svetlana Chimrova captured the second seed into the finals with a 26.21 to win the second semifinal. That swim pushed her to 19th in the world rankings.
Canada’s Samantha Corea qualified third overall in 26.34 with Australia’s Holly Barratt posting a fourth-seeded time of 26.61.
Ukraine’s Darya Stepanyuk (26.71), New Zealand’s Laura Quilter (26.71), Italy’s Elena Di Liddo (26.73) and USA’s Christina Bechtel (26.73) also made the finals.
USA’s Felicia Lee was unable to progress to finals with an 11th-place time of 27.00.
Men’s 100 back semifinals
Japan’s Junya Hasegawa served notice to the rest of the field by blasting semis with a 54.01. That’s just off his 20th-ranked season best of 54.00 from the Japanese Nationals earlier this year.
Hasegawa still has to drop a large amount of time to challenge Ryosuke Irie’s 2009 meet record of 52.60.
Italy’s Christopher Ciccarese unloaded on the back 50 to close semis with the second seed in 54.23 out of the second semifinal heat.
USA’s Jack Conger put up the top time in the first semifinal with a third-seeded time of 54.53, likely setting himself up for a personal best during finals.
Conger’s best is a 54.04 from the 2013 World University Games, and he should get under that time tomorrow night.
Russia’s Andrei Shabasov (54.65), USA’s Jacob Pebley (54.74), Italy’s Matteo Milli (54.95), France’s Eddie Moueddene (55.42) and South Korea’s Seonkwan Park (55.45) also earned their way into the finale.
Women’s 400 IM finals
USA’s Sarah Henry crushed the rest of the field in the back half of the distance medley as she chalked up another lifetime best with a time of 4:38.88.
This morning, she broke 4:40 for the first time in her life with a 4:39.62 before clocking a 15th-ranked time tonight in 4:38.88.
That’s another big title for Henry this year after previously winning the closest women’s 400-yard IM final in the history of the NCAA Championships earlier this year.
Henry, a senior who battled through multiple ACL tears in her career, overtook the field with a 4:02.47 to win the NCAA title. Her win actually came against WUGs teammate Hali Flickinger, who took second in 4:02.73 for Georgia.
The Universiade record of 4:37.50 set by Ukraine’s Yana Klochkova in 2007 will survive another meet.
Czech’s Barbora Zavadova took silver in a time of 4:40.03, while Hali Flickinger gave the U.S. a 1-3 finish with a bronze-winning time of 4:40.54.
South Korea’s Seoyeong Kim finished fourth in 4:41.78 with Italy’s Luisa Trombetti taking fifth in 4:41.84.
Italy’s Stefania Pirozzi (4:42.02), Australia’s Ellen Fullerton (4:43.29) and China’s Li Xuanxu (4:45.88) also competed for the title.
Men’s 100 breast semifinals
Great Britain’s Craig Benson nearly cleared 1:00 in semis with a 1:00.16 to top the finalists. That swim pushed him up to 11th in the world rankings.
Benson needs to cut another half-a-second to challenge Igor Borysik’s meet record of 59.53 from 2009. Should he do that during finals, he’d break into the top five in the world this year.
Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Balandin, who had a breakthrough summer last year at the Youth Olympics, led the way in the first semifinal with a 1:00.27. That swim jumped him into a tie with Jake Packard for 15th in the world rankings.
Serbia’s Caba Siladji, the man with the top ranked time this year with a 59.79 from the Eindhoven Swim Cup, qualified third in 1:00.51.
Great Britain’s James Wilby qualified fourth in 1:00.59 with Russia’s Oleg Kostin taking fifth in 1:00.62.
Japan’s Kazuki Kohinata (1:00.81), Australia’s Nicholas Schafer (1:00.86) and USA’s Daniel MacDonald (1:00.93) all broke 1:01 to make the finale.
Women’s 200 back semifinals
The second semifinal had the top swimmers with Team USA going 1-2 out of semifinal qualifying.
Lisa Bratton raced her way to the top with a 2:11.08 as she stormed back from fourth at the turn.
Melanie Klaren also used some backhalf speed to pull herself into the second seed with a 2:11.58. Czech’s Simona Baumrtova had led through the 150, but faded to the third seed overall in 2:11.60.
Japan’s Yuka Kawayoke beat the second semifinal field by nearly a second with a time of fourth-seeded 2:11.62.
It’s going to take a huge time drop for anyone to challenge Stephanie Proud’s meet record of 2:08.91 from 2009.
Canada’s Barbara Rojas-Jardin (2:12.52), France’s Camille Gheorghiu (2:12.71), Russia’s Alexandra Papusha (2:13.00) and Japan’s Miki Takahashi (2:13.13) will also compete for the gold medal tomorrow.
Men’s 50 fly semifinals
Belarus’ Yauhen Tsurkin clipped Brazil’s Henrique Martins in semifinal 2 for the top two times out of the sprint fly semifinals.
Tsurkin posted a time of 23.43 to move into an 11th-ranked tie with Konrad Czerniak and Vlad Morozov.
Martins, who already tied his ninth-ranked season best of 23.38 during prelims, settles for the second seed in 23.46.
Italy’s Piero Codia bettered his 17th-ranked season best of 23.55 from the Sette Colli meet with a 23.48 to top semifinal 1 and finish third in semis. His swim tonight moved him to 14th in the world.
Russia’s Oleg Kostin (23.52), China’s Shi Yang (23.77), USA’s Matt Josa (23.86), USA’s Andrew Seliskar (24.11) and Russia’s Aleksandr Sadovnikov (24.13) grabbed the other transfer spots into finals.
Women’s 400 free relay finals
Team USA clipped Russia’s Universiade record of 3:38.15 from 2013 with a blistering time of 3:38.12 for the win.
Abbey Weitzeil (54.78), Shannon Vreeland (54.34), Madeline Locus (54.95) and Lia Neal (54.05) managed to give Team USA its second gold medal of the evening in a dominant fashion to win by more than three seconds.
Japan’s Yui Yamane (55.07), Yasuko Miyamoto (55.63), Aya Sato (54.75) and Mari Sumiyoshi (55.70) placed second in 3:41.15.
Russia’s Polina Lapshina (56.17), Margarita Nesterova (54.68), Elizaveta Bazarova (55.63) and Rozaliya Nasretdinova (54.86) closed out the podium with a bronze-winning 3:41.34.
China (3:41.99), Italy (3:42.89), Australia (3:43.73), Sweden (3:44.50) and Canada (3:44.90) also swam in the final.
Men’s 400 free relay finals
Team USA made it a clean sweep of the gold medals as the foursome of Matt Ellis (49.86), Michael Wynalda (49.38), Jack Conger (47.75) and Seth Stubblefield (48.86) put together a winning time of 3:15.85 in the men’s 400-meter free relay.
Italy initially led at the 200-meter mark with Giuseppe Guttuso (49.62) and Jonathan Boffa (49.11) getting them out front in 1:38.73. But, Team USA had the nuclear weapon of the night in Conger with his ridiculous 47.75 split to put the swim away. Italy faded to fourth in 3:18.43.
Japan’s Reo Sakata (50.06), Kosuke Matsui (49.75), Takumi Komatsu (49.49) and Toru Maruyama (48.68) placed second in 3:17.98 with Russia’s Ivan Kuzmenko (50.22), Oleg Tikhobaev (49.55), Alexander Tikhonov (50.17) and Mikhail Polishchuk (48.24) took bronze in 3:18.18.
Turkey (3:20.51), Belarus (3:20.82) and South Africa (3:21.07) placed fifth through seventh, while Australia drew a disqualification after an early takeoff between Jack McLoughlin and Justin James.
2015 World University Games, Day 1 Finals – Results
SCHEDULED EVENTS
- Women’s 50 fly semis
- Men’s 100 back semis
- Women’s 400 IM finals
- Men’s 100 breast semis
- Women’s 200 back semis
- Men’s 50 fly semis
- Women’s 400 free relay finals
- Men’s 400 free relay finals
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Congratulations Sarah Henry and Hali Flickinger! Kicking the 4th of July off in style.