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DURBAN, South Africa, October 17. THE second day of preliminary qualifying rounds of the FINA World Cup series provided the first world record of the circuit. Sweden's Therese Alshammar erased the women's 100 IM global mark with a swift morning effort.
Men's 1500 free slower seeds
Michael Peterson downed Dean Myhill 16:44.53 to 16:47.83, in a head-to-head South African battle during the slower seeds of the men's 1500 free.
Women's 100 free
The women's 100 free finale this evening looks to be a good one as it is stocked with plenty of stars. The Netherlands went 1-2 during qualifying as Inge Dekker (53.85) and Ranomi Kromowidjojo (53.98) topped prelims.
Australia's Marieke Guehrer (54.35) and Felicity Galvez (54.67) finished third and fourth, while Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom took fifth in 54.93.
Jessica Hardy of the U.S. touched sixth in 55.18, while South Africa's Karin Prinsloo (55.27) and Lara Jackson (55.56) of the U.S. rounded out the finals field.
Men's 200 free
South Africa claimed the bulk of the transfer spots into finals as Darian Townsend (1:45.63), Leith Shankland (1:49.03) and Jay-Cee Thompson (1:49.34) went 1-6-8.
Germany's Steffen Deibler finished second in 1:46.97, while Argentina's Federico Grabich (1:47.37) and Damian Roth (1:48.26) qualified third and fifth. Switzerland's Dominik Meichtry took fourth in 1:47.55. Brazil's Guilherme Roth-Santos wound up seventh in 1:49.10.
Women's 50 breast
Germany's Kerstin Vogel claimed the top seed in the sprint breast event with a time of 30.41, but world record holder Jessica Hardy of the U.S. qualified just behind in 31.13 and should have plenty left in the tank for a world-record attempt.
Sweden's Joline Hostman placed third in 31.60 with Germany's Caroline Ruhnau finishing fourth in 31.81.
South Africans Ronwyn Roper (32.22), Keri Plumstead (32.24), Taryn MacKenzie (32.43) and Kerryn Mullin (32.70) completed the top eight.
Men's 100 breast
South Africa's Neil Versfeld topped qualifying with a time of 58.54, while compatriots Thabang Moeketsane (59.87) and Cameron van der Burgh (59.88) placed second and third. Germany's Hendrik Feldwehr wound up fourth overall in 59.91.
Brazil's Eduardo Fischer took fifth in 1:00.17, while South Africa's William Diering touched sixth in 1:00.79. South Africa's Ashley Oliver (1:00.85) and Gerhard Zandberg (1:01.15) finished seventh and eighth.
Men's 100 fly
South Africa and Russia grabbed all of the finale spots. Chad Le Clos (52.89), Garth Tune (53.02) and Lyndon Ferns (53.09) captured the top three.
Russia's Maxim Ganikhin (53.21) and Evgeny Korotyshkin (53.28) qualified fourth and fifth.
South Africans Rohan Jacobs (54.39), Wesley Gilchrist (54.40) and Marius Hattingh (54.44) posted the sixth, seventh and eighth fastest times of the preliminary round.
Women's 100 back
Brazil's Fabiola Molina cleared 1:00 for the quickest time of the morning as she turned in a 59.98. South Africa's Karin Prinsloo placed second in 1:00.81, while Chanelle Van Wyk finished third in 1:01.04.
Whitney Myers of the U.S. qualified fourth in 1:01.26, while South Africa's Jessica Ashley-Cooper took fifth in 1:02.64. Daniella Lushington of South Africa claimed sixth in 1:03.74 with teammate Brittney Cameron finishing seventh in 1:04.00. Zimbabwe's Kirsten Lapham completed the championship field in 1:04.24.
Men's 50 back
Peter Marshall of the United States earned the top seed in the sprint back with a time of 23.92, while Brazil's Daniel Orzechowski placed second in 24.03. Russia's Stanislav Donets finished third in 24.18.
South Africa's Gerhard Zandberg (24.26) and George Du Rand (24.4) placed fourth and fifth, while Austria's Markus Rogan took sixth in 24.62.
Argentina's Federico Grabich (24.65) and Australia's Ashley Delaney (24.80) completed the top eight to vie for the title.
Men's 200 IM
Austria's Markus Rogan (1:59.76) and South Africa's Darian Townsend (1:59.83) cleared 2:00 to go 1-2 during preliminary qualifying. South Africa's Jay-Cee Thompson (2:01.06) and Riaan Schoeman (2:01.95) claimed third and fourth.
Argentina's Gaston Rodriguez placed fifth in 2:02.59, while South Africa's Chad Le Clos took sixth in 2:02.71. Rodriguez lowered Argentina's national record of 2:03.39 previously set by Andres Gustavo Grasso in 1997.
South Africa's Marco Husselmann (2:04.12) and Albertus Nel (2:04.20) also picked up transfer spots into finals.
Women's 400 free
South Africa nearly made it a clean sweep of the middle distance event as only Singapore's Chriselle Koh Wyn Jia broke up the sweep with an eighth-place 4:26.52.
Meanwhile, Jessica Pengelly (4:16.91), Kayla Ferreira (4:17.91), Rene Warnes (4:18.46), Nina Nicholas (4:19.98), Bianca Hauzer (4:23.30), Natasha De Vos (4:25.25) and Zoe Venter (4:25.73) made up the rest of the championship field.
Men's 50 free
It took a 21 to make the finale of the men's splash-and-dash. Sweden's Stefan Nystrand captured the top seed with a time of 21.45, while Russia's Sergey Fesikov took second in 21.47. Sabir Muhammad of the U.S. placed third in 21.56, while South Africa's Roland Schoeman touched fourth in 21.70.
South Africa's Lyndon Ferns grabbed fifth in 21.82 with South Africa's Gerhard Zandberg taking sixth in 21.87. Germany's Steffen Deibler earned seventh in 21.92, while Brazil's Guilherme Roth-Santos placed eighth in 21.99.
Women's 200 breast
Serbia's Nadja Higl smashed her national record with a time of 2:23.35. The time wiped out her 2:27.22 set in February 2009. Germany's Caroline Ruhnau finished a distant second in 2:26.76, while South Africa's Ronwyn Roper took third in 2:27.99.
South Africa's Jessica Liss took fourth in 2:28.18, while Sweden's Joline Hostman placed fifth in 2:28.19.
South Africa's Kathryn Meaklim (2:32.13), Jessica Pengelly (2:32.30) and Kirsty Wienand (2:33.21) snagged sixth, seventh and eighth.
Women's 100 IM
Sweden's Therese Alshammar lowered the world record in the women's 100 IM with a time of 58.51. Her performance wiped out the record of 58.54 set by Emily Seebohm in August.
"I felt good going into the race off the back of wins in the 50 meters freestyle and 100 meters butterfly last night," Alshammar, who also won a US$10,000 world record bounty from FINA, told Swimming South Africa. "I have been working really hard on my turns and butterfly kicks during training and it all came together for me today."
Here are the comparative splits:
Alshammar: 25.97, 58.51 (32.54)
Seebohm: 26.88, 58.54 (31.66)
Prior to this year, Natalie Coughlin held the record with a 58.80 set in 2002 in New York, which also stood as the World Cup record until Alshammar's record. Notably, Alshammar also lowered the Swedish record of Josefin Lillhage set with a 59.84 set in 2008.
The Netherlands' Hinkelien Schreuder finished second in 59.35 to down her national record of 59.75 set in December 2008.
Jessica Hardy (1:01.66) and Whitney Myers (1:01.76) of the United States touched third and fourth, while Brazil's Fabiola Molina placed fifth in 1:02.00.
South Africa's Amanda Loots (1:02.16), Lara Jackson (1:02.69) of the United States and Germany's Kerstin Vogel (1:03.05) completed the top eight.
Men's 200 back
Australia's Ashley Delaney led the way out of prelims with a time of 1:57.43, while South Africa's George Du Rand finished second in 1:58.53. South Africa's Charl Van Zyl claimed third in 1:58.73, while South Africa's Michael Meyer earned fourth in 1:59.27.
Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin turned in a fifth-place time of 2:00.04, while South Africa's Leith Shankland placed sixth in 2:01.03. Russia's Stanislav Donets (2:01.63) and South Africa's Rohan Jacobs (2:01.68) also made the championship field.
Women's 50 fly
Sweden's Therese Alshammar followed the world record performance in the 100 IM with a top-seeded time of 25.68 in the sprint fly. The Netherlands' Hinkelien Schreuder grabbed second in 25.74.
Australia's Marieke Guehrer (25.95) and Felicity Galvez (26.00) wound up third and fourth, while The Netherlands' Ranomi Kromowidjojo (26.17) and Inge Dekker (26.43) touched fifth and sixth.
Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom placed seventh in 26.64, while Lara Jackson of the United States took eighth in 26.74.