USA Closes Out Most Successful World Championships in Ten Years: Full Day 8 Recap

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The last day of finals at the 2017 FINA World Championships featured eight exciting finals as the United States finished its most successful World Championships with 38 total medals. That total surpasses the 36 they had in 1978 and 2007. They finished the night with a world record in the women’s medley relay and a gold in the men’s medley relay. They also started the night with a world record from Lilly King in the 50 breast as she set her second world record of the meet.

Chase Kalisz also won his second title of the meet as he won the 400 IM. Kalisz swam to be the third fastest performer in history behind Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Katinka Hosszu of Hungary delighted the home crowd as she became the second swimmer ever to win the same event four times at the World Championships as she dominated the 400 IM final.

Camille Lacourt of France closed his career in style as he won his third straight 50 back world title. Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden also defended her 50 fly world title and Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy defended his 1500 free title on Sunday as well.

Heat Sheets

Results

Today’s events:

Women’s 50 Breast
Men’s 400 IM
Women’s 50 Fly
Men’s 50 Back
Women’s 400 IM
Men’s 1500 Free
Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay
Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay

Women’s 50 Breast

Lilly King broke her second world record of the meet as she set the 50 breast world record on Sunday night in Budapest at the FINA World Championships. King swam a 29.40 to break Ruta Meilutyte’s 29.48 record from 2013. King held off a strong swim from Yulia Efimova of Russia who won the silver at 29.57. Efimova has now medaled at the last five World Championships in this event dating back to her gold in 2009.

American Katie Meili finished in third at 29.99 for her second individual medal of the meet. Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte (30.20), Sweden’s Jennie Johansson (30.31), Great Britain’s Sarah Vasey (30.62), Italy’s Arianna Castiglioni (30.74) and Canada’s Rachel Nicol (30.80) also competed in the championship final.

This is the first time since Jessica Hardy went 29.80 in 2009 that an American has the world record in this event. It is also the first gold for an American since Hardy won in 2011.

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Men’s 400 IM

Chase Kalisz has showed he is the new king of the IM’s as he adds to his gold he won in the 200 IM. Kalisz swam a 4:05.90 to be only the third swimmer under 4:06 in the event joining Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Kalisz broke the championship record that Phelps set in 2007 at 4:06.22.

Hungary’s David Verraszto had the swim of his life getting the silver medal at 4:08.38 as he wins his second straight silver medal at the World Championships. Japan’s Daiya Seto (4:09.14) won the bronze medal ahead of Great Britain’s Max Litchfield (4:09.62). Seto was the two-time defending champion in the 400 IM and got the streak broken, but he will be on the podium for the third straight Worlds.

USA’s Jay Litherland (4:12.05), Japan’s Kosuke Hagino (4:12.65), Brazil’s Brandonn Almeida (4:13.00) and Slovakia’s Richard Nagy (4:16.33) also swam in the championship final.

This is the United States’ eighth World Championship gold medal in the men’s 400 IM and the first since Lochte won in 2011.

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Women’s 50 Free

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom just missed her world record in the 50 free that she set last night in the semi-finals at the FINA World Championships in Budapest. Sjostrom swam the second fastest time ever with a 23.69 for the gold medal in the 50. She was joined under 24 seconds by Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands as she broke 24 for the first time. Kromowidjojo swam a 23.85 to win the silver.

USA’s Simone Manuel also broke 24 for the first time as she swam a 23.97 to break the American Record. That breaks the record that Dara Torres set in 2008 at 24.07.

Denmark’s Pernille Blume (24.00), Belarus’ Aliaksandra Herasimenia (24.46), China’s Liu Xiang (24.58), France’s Anna Santamans (24.58) and Australia’s Bronte Campbell (24.58) also swam in the championship final.

Sjostrom joins Therese Alshammar (2011) as winners in the event for Sweden at the World Championships. Sjostrom upgrades her bronze from 2015 in this event.

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Men’s 50 Back

France’s Camille Lacourt announced he would retire after Budapest and he closed his career out in style with his third straight World title in the 50 backstroke. Lacourt swam a 24.35 to win the gold medal ahead of Japan’s Junya Koga (24.51) and USA’s Matt Grevers (24.56). The top three medalists are all over the age of 30.

France’s Jeremy Stravius (24.61), China’s Xu Jiayu (24.74), USA’s Justin Ress (24.77), Belarus’ Pavel Sankovich (24.83) and Israel’s Jonatan Kopelev (24.85) also competed in the championship final.

Lacourt is the first swimmer to win three straight 50 back titles in the event’s short history. Lacourt is also the ninth male swimmer to win the same event at World Championships three straight times.

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Women’s 400 IM

Katinka Hosszu won her fourth medal of the week as she won her third straight 400 IM World Title on Sunday night in Budapest at the FINA World Championships. Hosszu broke her championship record with a 4:29.33 to break the record she held from Rome in 2009 at 4:30.31. This is Hosszu’s fourth overall World Title in this event.

Spain’s Mireia Belmonte (4:32.17) collected silver and Canada’s Sydney Pickrem (4:32.88) collected bronze after a disaster 200 IM final. Belmonte won her third medal of the meet.

Japan’s Yui Ohashi (4:34.50), Japan’s Sakiko Shimizu (4:35.62), USA’s Leah Smith (4:36.09), USA’s Elizabeth Beisel (4:37.63) and Great Britain’s Hannah Miley (4:38.34) also competed in the championship final.

Hosszu joins Sarah Sjostrom as the only female swimmers to win the same event at World Championships four times as Sjostrom won the 100 fly in 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2017. Hosszu had the exact same streak as she failed to medal in 2011.

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Men’s 1500 Free

Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri defended his 1500 free world title with a 14:35.85 on Sunday night in Budapest at the FINA World Championships. Paltrinieri had a back and forth race before outlasting silver medalist Mykhailo Romanchuk of the Ukraine. Romanchuk fell off of Paltrinieri’s pace slowly but he hung on for a huge silver medal at 14:37.14. Australia’s Mack Horton won the bronze medal with a 14:47.70.

Italy’s Gabriele Detti (14:52.07), Norway’s Henrik Christiansen (14:54.58), Ukraine’s Sergii Frolov (14:55.10), Poland’s Wojciech Wojdak (15:01.27) and the Czech Republic’s Jan Micka (15:09.28) also competed in the championship final.

This is Paltrinieri’s third straight medal in this event at the World Championships as he won bronze in 2013 and gold in 2015. Paltrinieri is also the fourth swimmer to repeat World titles in this event after Vladimir Salnikov (1978, 1982), Grant Hackett (1998, 2001, 2003, 2005) and Sun Yang (2011, 2013) won back to back titles in their careers.

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Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay

The United States women ended the Budapest World Championships on a huge note as the women broke the 400 medley relay world record with a 3:51.55 to break the 3:52.05 from the 2012 Olympics. Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Kelsi Worrell and Simone Manuel broke the record that was held by the all-star cast of Missy Franklin, Rebecca Soni, Dana Vollmer and Allison Schmitt.

Comparative splits:

Baker (58.54), King (1:04.48), Worrell (56.30), Manuel (52.23)
Franklin (58.50), Soni (1:04.82), Vollmer (55.48), Schmitt (53.25)

The United States has now won 37 total medals in the pool at the World Championships, surpassing the record total of 36 from the 2007 Worlds in Melbourne ten years ago and the 1978 Worlds in West Berlin.

Russia broke the European Record for the silver medal as Anastasia Fesikova (58.96), Yulia Efimova (1:04.03), Svetlana Chimrova (56.99) and Veronika Popova (53.40) broke the record with a 3:53.38 for silver. The record surpasses Denmark’s 3:55.01 from Rio last summer. The breast split from Efimova is the fastest breaststroke split by a woman in history.

Australia won the bronze medal with Emily Seebohm (58.53), Taylor McKeown (1:06.29), Emma McKeon (56.78) and Bronte Campbell (52.69) at 3:54.29. They just held off Canada (3:54.86) and Sweden (3:55.28). Sarah Sjostrom (55.03) also had the fastest butterfly split of all-time.

China (3:57.69), Great Britain (3:59.51) and Italy (3:59.98) also competed in the championship final.

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Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay

The United States won its 38th medal in the pool on Sunday night in Budapest at the FINA World Championships with a gold in the men’s 400 medley relay. The team of Matt Grevers (52.26), Kevin Cordes (58.89), Caeleb Dressel (49.76) and Nathan Adrian (47.00) won the gold medal at 3:27.91 to just miss the 3:27.28 from the 2009 Worlds. This is Dressel’s seventh gold medal of the meet and the fifth gold medal without the mixed relays. Dressel was also just shy of Phelps’ 49.72 split from 2009 that is the quickest of all-time.

Great Britain won the silver medal at 3:28.95 with Chris Walker-Hebborn (54.20), Adam Peaty (56.91), James Guy (50.80) and Duncan Scott (47.04) swimming for them. Peaty was the only swimmer under 58 in the field on breaststroke.

Russia won the bronze medal with a 3:29.76. The Russians had Evgeny Rylov (52.89), Kirill Prigoda (59.02), Aleksandr Popkov (51.16) and Vladimir Morozov (46.69) swimming for them as they concluded a very successful meet for their country. Morozov had the fastest freestyle split in the field.

Other quick splits in the field were from Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki on breast (58.54) and Hungary’s Dominik Kozma on free (46.72). Japan broke the Asian Record with a 3:30.19 to surpass Japan’s 3:30.74 from the heats of the 2009 Worlds in Rome. Ryosuke Irie (52.80), Koseki (58.54), Yuki Kobori (51.21) and Shinri Shioura (47.64) swam for them.

Brazil (3:31.53), China (3:31.65), Hungary (3:32.13) and Belarus (3:33.63) also swam in the championship final.

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