Psych Sheet Posted for FINA Short Course World Championships; Seven Gold Medalists from Tokyo Set to Compete
The 2021 FINA Short Course World Championships begin Thursday, December 16 in Abu Dhabi and run for six days, and Omega Timing has posted the entries for all events. The meet was delayed from 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while most of the sport’s biggest names will be missing in the aftermath of the Olympic and the ISL season, several will be in attendance to cap off the 2021 calendar year.
Check out the full psych sheet here.
Seven swimmers who won Olympic gold medals in Tokyo are entered in the meet: Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui (men’s 400 freestyle), Canada’s Maggie MacNeil (men’s 100 butterfly), Great Britain’s Tom Dean (men’s 200 freestyle), the USA’s Lydia Jacoby (women’s 100 breaststroke), China’s Zhang Yufei (women’s 200 butterfly), South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker (women’s 200 breaststroke) and China’s Wang Shun (men’s 200 IM).
The list of Olympic medalists competing on the women’s side also includes Swedish superstar Sarah Sjostrom, two-times silver medalist Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong and Kylie Masse of Canada, China’s Li Bingjie, Italy’s Simona Quadarella and American IMers Kate Douglass and Emma Weyant.
For the men, 100 freestyle Olympic silver medalist Kyle Chalmers is out as he battles a shoulder injury, but multi-time medalists Duncan Scott of Great Britain, Kliment Kolesnikov of Russia and Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands lead the way. Distance stars Florian Wellbrock, Mykhailo Romanchuk and Gregorio Paltrinieri will be in Abu Dhabi, and so will Nicolo Martinenghi, Kieran Smith, Fernando Scheffer and Noe Ponti.
Women’s short course world-record holders competing in their respective events include the Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo in the 50 free, the Netherlands’ Kira Toussaint in the 50 back and Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson in the 50 and 100 breast. Men’s record-holders entered include Paltrinieri in the 1500 free, Belarus’ Ilya Shymanovich in the 100 and 200 breast, Japan’s Daiya Seto in the 400 IM and co-world-record holders Nicholas Santos and Szebasztian Szabo in the 50 fly.
Notably, Americans Coleman Stewart (100 backstroke) and Kelsi Dahlia (100 butterfly) set new world records during this year’s ISL season, but neither is on the American roster for Abu Dhabi.
Unlike the long course World Championships, this meet will include semifinals of only 50 and 100-meter events, while 200-meter races go directly to finals. The meet also includes the same individual events program as the long course edition of Worlds except for the distance events, where the women’s 1500 free and men’s 800 free have not been added to the program (unlike at the Olympic Games).
The meet also includes a whopping 12 relays: women and men will each compete in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle relays and the 200 and 400 medley relays. Mixed relays include the 200 freestyle and 200 medley.
