Budapest 2024, Day 1 Prelims: Summer McIntosh & Noè Ponti Shine As Short-Course Worlds Get Underway
Summer McIntosh and Noè Ponti were among the swimmers to make clear their intentions in the first prelims session of the World Short-Course Championships underway in Budapest.
Gretchen Walsh set a shuddering 24.02 WR in the 50 fly where she shattered Therese Alshammar’s standard that stood since the supersuited era of 2009.
Also leading the way in their events were Hubert Kos, Abbie Wood, Regan Smith and Shaine Casas. Semis will be contested only in the 50s and 100s with all other events going straight to finals.
Women’s 400m Freestyle
McIntosh was in the fifth and final prelim alongside Lani Pallister with the pair sharing the centre lanes. It was the Australian who took out the pace, turning 0.41 inside the world record after 100m.
McIntosh, who won silver at Paris 2024, tracked Pallister and pulled alongside at 300m before going ahead to touch in 3:57.55 to book lane four for the final.
Pallister was second through in 3:57.97 followed by Claire Weinstein (3:58.58), Paige Madden (3:58.83), Isabel Gose (3:59.87), Mary-Sophie Harvey (4:00.04), Leah Neale (4:01.99) and Sofia Dakova, a neutral athlete, (4:02.03).
McIntosh won three golds and a silver at Paris 2024 and she spoke to Swimming World about her return to racing after the whirlwind of the summer.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “To be back here at one of my favourite pools – it’s kind of where it really started off, my getting really up there in the ranks with World Championships and things like that.
“So to be back here is really fun and I always love racing – I love training but I love racing even more so to be back at it and to get to race alongside so many amazing swimmers I’m excited to continue on with the meet.”
Women’s 100m Backstroke
Regan Smith left no-one in any doubt as to her intentions in Budapest after she posted the only sub-56 swim.
The USA athlete – who lowered the WR to 54.27 on the final leg of the World Cup tour in Singapore at the start of November, was top seed into tonight’s semis in 55.86 followed by Iona Anderson (56.25) and Katharine Berkoff (56.33).
Zheng Huiyu of China claimed the 16th and final semi spot in 57.52 with Kira Toussaint locked out by one place and 0.03 as first reserve.
Men’s 100m Backstroke
Hubert Kos was given a rousing reception by the home crowd at the Duna Arena and the Hungarian reciprocated with a fine performance as he topped prelims into tonight’s semis.
The 21-year-old, who won gold in the 200 back in Paris, posted 49.12 to obliterate Richard Bohus’ national record of 50.58 that stood since December 2019. It also steered Kos to within 0.79 of Coleman Stewart‘s world record of 48.33 set in August 2021 with Kliment Kolesnikov’s 48.58 European standard well within his sights.
Kos told Swimming World: “It’s amazing to swim at home, really happy to be here.”
Now that focus is back on competition, he added: “It’s great, that’s why we do the sport. It’s for the meets, it’s for the races and the competitions. I’m really happy to be here and after another half year of hard work I can just finally just show it up.”
Women’s 50 Butterfly
Gretchen Walsh set a WR of 24.02, the first of the six-day meet in Budapest. More here.
Men’s 50m Butterfly
Minutes after Walsh set a WR in the women’s event, then Nyls Korstanje rattled the men’s standard in 21.62. It was a championship record, cutting 0.16 from Nicholas Santos’ mark of 21.78, a Dutch record and within 0.12 of Ponti’s global standard of 21.50.
Ponti stood up in the very next prelim and split 9.91/11.62 for 21.53, the second-fastest all-time behind only his WR, and a new CR.
“That’s a good start – I mean, a world record would have been better! But a very good start. That means I’m in pretty good shape; it was important to swim faster than the other guys.”
The Swiss athlete, who watched in the call room as Gretchen Walsh set a WR in the women’s 50 fly, has yet to make the podium at the Duna Arena.
The closest he’s come is fourth in the 200 fly at the 2022 World Championships, swimming alongside Kristof Milak as he set a WR of 1:50.34. Milak isn’t competing at Budapest 2024 but his performance at the 2022 worlds made Ponti feel like “I was going 1:58 and I still went 1:54.2. It wasn’t very fun.”
Ponti added: “It has never brought me so much luck this pool but it is the fastest pool in the world, I think. The atmosphere is amazing, they did a very good job. I can’t wait to swim the finals session to see how it is.”
Ilya Kharun set a Canadian record of 21.84 with Teong Tzen Wei the fourth and final man inside 22secs in 21.97.
Women’s 200IM
Abbie Wood led the way in 2:05.16, 0.39 off her British record of 2:04.77 set in the same Duna Arena pool during the ISL in November 2020.
She was followed by Mary-Sophie Harvey (2:05.99) and Kate Douglass (2:06.08).
Men’s 200IM
Shaine Casas was the only man inside 1:52 as he booked lane four for the final in 1:51.52. Alberto Razzetti of Italy (1:52.21) and Finlay Knox (1:52.24) – bronze medallist at the 2022 edition in Melbourne – were next through.
Also through were 2022 silver medallist Carson Foster (1:52.59), 2021 champion Daiya Seto (1:53.20), neutral athlete Ilia Borodin (1:53.30), Berke Saka of Turkey (1:53.43) and David Schlicht (1:53.55). Max Litchfield of Great Britain was ninth, 0.08 off the final as first reserve.
Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay
Italy, featuring a 51.30 leg by Sara Curtis – winner of five gold medals at the 2024 European juniors – led the way into the final in 3:29.86.
Germany were second in 3:30.37 with the USA third into the final in 3:31.16. Gretchen Walsh – fresh from becoming 50 fly world record-holder – posted the swiftest leg of the entire field, splitting 50.51 on anchor.
Australia – who set a WR of 3:25.43 en-route to the title in Melbourne two years ago – were seventh in 3:31.90 with Canada – including Penny Oleksiak on lead-off – taking the eighth and final spot in 3:34.50.
Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay
The USA and Italy hinted at a real tussle in tonight’s final with the quartets separated by only 0.20secs after the morning session.
Anchored by Jack Alexy in 45.58 – the fastest split in the field – the USA posted 3:05.20 with reigning champions and world record-holders Italy coming home in 3:05.40.
Men’s 1500 Free Slowest Heats
World record-holder Florian Wellbrock went in the second of two heats and led the way in 14:17.27, inside the top-20 performances all-time.
The German, who set the WR of 14:06.88 at the 2021 edition in Abu Dhabi, ranks first in 2024 with that time, more than seven seconds ahead of Ahmed Jaouadi who went 14:24.68 at the French Championships last month.
The Tunisian is in the fastest heat this evening in which Hungarian Zalan Sarkany (14:23.31) is the top seed and they’ll be joined by the likes of Damien Joly, Nathan Wiffen and Kuzey Tuncelli.
Wellbrock’s teammate Sven Schwarz posted the second-fastest time of 14:22.29 with Luca de Tullio going 14:28.44.
