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Olympics: After Katinka Hosszu Scratch, All 16 Advance in Formality of 200 Fly Prelims
Some prelims are a matter of surviving and advancing. Tuesday night in the women’s 200 fly, merely surviving would’ve sufficed.
With 17 swimmers entered, and a late scratch from Katinka Hosszu, all it took was a legal finish to make Wednesday morning’s semifinal. All 16 swimmers, from top seed Zhang Yufei in 2:07.50 to Honduras’ Julimar Avila in a best time of 2:15.36, duly obliged to set the field.
Yufei won the third and final heat with ease in a dominant time. Hali Flickinger of the United States had won the previous heat eight tenths slower.
“Um, it’s interesting,” Flickinger said. “But I just wanted to get up and swim a decent race tonight to get ready for tomorrow morning.”
Each had a compatriot in the top four, with Yu Liyan outdueling 100 back bronze medalist Regan Smith in the first heat.
Hosszu, who finished fifth in the 400 individual medley, is the seventh seed in the final of the 200 IM Wednesday morning.
Women’s 200 Butterfly
- World record: Liu Zige, China, 2:01.81 (2009)
- Olympic record: Jiao Liuyang, China, 2:04.06 (2012)
- Zhang Yufei, China, 2:07.50
- Hali Flickinger, United States, 2:08.31
- Yu Liyan, China, 2:08.46
- Regan Smith, United States 2:08.46
- Boglarka Kapas, Hungary, 2:08.58
- Svetlana Chimrova, Russia, 2:08.84
- Laura Stephens, Great Britain, 2:09.00
- Alys Thomas, Great Britain, 2:09.06
- Brianna Throssell, Australia, 2:09.34
- Helena Bach, Denmark, 2:09.37
- Franziska Hentke, Germany, 2:09.98
- Define Tacyildiz, Turkey, 2:10.00
- Suzuka Hasegawa, Japan, 2:10.43
- Ana Monteiro, Portugal, 2:11.45
- Remedy Rule, Philippines, 2:12.23
- Julimar Avila, Honduras, 2:15.36
