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Women’s 400 free
USA’s Leah Smith certainly woke the fans up this morning with a blistering time in the women’s 400-meter free as she blasted her lifetime best and crushed the meet record.
Smith raced her way to a sizzling time of 4:04.66 in prelims, crushing Federica Pellegrini’s 2007 meet record of 4:06.11. That’s also way faster than Smith’s lifetime best of 4:06.28 from last summer’s nationals.
Smith vaulted to fourth in the world with this morning’s swim.
400 Free World rankings
[table “” not found /]Smith is definitely serving notice that she’s up to the task to be America’s second line of defense behind Katie Ledecky in terms of the middle to distance freestyle in the U.S.
Italy’s Martina De Memme qualified well behind with a 4:11.24 for the second seed, while USA’s Lindsay Vrooman posted a third-seeded 4:11.96.
Japan’s Asami Chida (4:13.85), Australia’s Kiah Melverton (4:14.20), Poland’s Justyna Burska (4:15.00), Italy’s Martina Caramignoli (4:16.29) and Canada’s Barbara Rojas-Jardin (4:17.97) also made the finale.
Women’s 200 breast
Team USA went 1-2 in qualifying in the women’s 200-meter breast.
Molly Hannis led the way with a time of 2:27.77, just a second off her personal best of 2:26.80 from the Orlando stop of the Arena Pro Swim Series.
Teammate Andrea Cottrell claimed the second seed in a time of 2:28.65, while Japan’s Reona Aoki turned in a third-seeded time of 2:28.80. Italy’s Francesca Fangio joined them under 2:29 with a fourth-seeded 2:28.98.
Japan’s Keiko Fukudome (2:29.12), Czech’s Martina Moravcikova (2:29.22), Great Britain’s Olivia White (2:29.37) and South Africa’s Franko Jonker (2:29.93) also made the top eight.
France’s Adeline Martin (2:30.21), South Korea’s Suyeon Back (2:30.46), Australia’s Jessica Hansen (2:30.90), Italy’s Ilaria Scarcella (2:30.91), Sweden’s Jessica Eriksson (2:32.47), Germany’s Laura Simon (2:32.96), New Zealand’s Natasha Lloyd (2:33.67) and Latvia’s Alona Ribakova (2:33.84) also will swim in the semifinal heats.
Men’s 100 free
It was another strong event for the Americans as the Red, White and Blue put both of their swimmers into the top seed with a tie.
Seth Stubblefield and Jack Conger turned in matching 49.51s during the ninth heat of the day for the top seed overall.
The pair will have some time to drop to challenge Vlad Morozov’s meet record of 47.62 from the 2013 edition.
Italy’s Marco Belotti (49.84), Japan’s Reo Sakata (49.94), Brazil’s Henrique Martins (49.96) and Italy’s Mattia Dall Aglio (49.96) also cleared 50 seconds to make semis.
Russia’s Oleg Tikhobaev (50.12) and New Zealand’s Daniel Hunter (50.24) qualified seventh and eighth.
Japan’s Toru Maruyama (50.35), Turkey’s Kemal Gurdal (50.42), New Zealand’s Samuel Perry (50.45), South Korea’s Junehyuck Yang (50.45), Australia’s Travis Mahoney (50.46), South Africa’s Douglas Erasmus (50.47), Turkey’s Doga Celik (50.48) and Australia’s Jacob Hansford (50.52) also grabbed transfer spots into semis.
Women’s 100 fly
Russia’s Svetlana Chimrova topped a loaded women’s 100-meter fly field with the only 58-point swim of the morning.
Chimrova clocked a time of 58.84 for the top seed, and only has to drop a second to challenge Katerine Savard’s meet record of 57.63 from 2013.
China’s Lu Ying, already the 50 fly winner and ranked 11th in the world in this event, qualified second in 59.02.
Italy’s Elena Di Liddo, ranked sixth in the world in the 100 fly with a 57.75 this year, cruised to the third seed in 59.24.
USA’s Felicia Lee picked up the fourth seed in 59.27 with Slovakia’s Katarina Listopadova (59.36) and Switzerland’s Danielle Villars (59.44) earning fifth and sixth.
China’s Zhou Yilin (59.46) and Japan’s Rino Hosoda (59.56) made up the rest of the top eight that all broke 1:00.
The bottom half of the semis is filled with 1:00s.
USA’s Christina Bechtel (1:00.04), Germany’s Paulina Schmiedel (1:00.12), Russia’s Alina Kashinskaya (1:00.21), New Zealand’s Samantha Lee (1:00.22), New Zealand’s Helena Gasson (1:00.25), Canada’s Jacomie Strydom (1:00.34), Austria’s Birgit Koschischek (1:00.39) and Canada’s Samantha Corea (1:00.47) also made semis.
Women’s 800 free relay
Team USA’s meet record of 7:55.02 from 2011 is on notice as this edition of the Stars and Stripes looks primed to crush that time during finals.
Chelsea Chenault (1:58.50), Hali Flickinger (1:57.87), Madisyn Cox (2:00.87) and Sarah Henry (1:59.48) threw down a top time of 7:56.72. With some finals relay changes, the meet record is as good as gone.
Japan’s Aya Takano (2:00.57), Yui Yamane (2:01.52), Asami Chida (2:05.90) and Yasuko Miyamoto (2:01.20) qualified a distant second in 8:09.19.
China (8:09.90), France (8:10.71), Italy (8:10.71), Australia (8:12.11), New Zealand (8:15.86) and Sweden (8:27.62) will also vie for the title during finals.
2015 World University Games, Day 4 Prelims – Results
SCHEDULED EVENTS
- Women’s 400 free
- Women’s 200 breast
- Men’s 100 free
- Women’s 100 fly
- Women’s 800 free relay
NO LIVE STREAM DURING PRELIMS
Congrats to Smith on a great swim; she’s laying down the gauntlet not only for tonight but for all the women swimming this event in Kazan.