World Championships, Day 5 Prelims (Men): Matti Mattsson Heads 200 Breast; Apostolos Siskos Leads 200 Back
The fifth day of prelims got under way at the World Championships in Doha with the likes of Arno Kamminga, Nic Fink and Luke Greenbank featuring at the Aspire Dome.
Men’s 200m Backstroke
Fukuoka gold and silver medallists Hubert Kos and Ryan Murphy are among many swimmers to have bypassed the World Championships.
Pieter Coetze, the Commonwealth bronze medallist, went 1:57.90 in the second heat but the pace was set by Apostolos Siskos of Greece who went 1:56.64 in the penultimate prelim.
Roman Mityukov, who finished third last year, went in the final heat with the likes of Olympic bronze medallist Luke Greenbank and 100 silver medallist Hugo Gonzalez.
The Swiss swimmer had an aggressive first 50 but a big third lap by Kai van Westering propelled him into first with the Netherlands athlete coming home in 1:57.29.
Siskos was the only man inside 1:57 ahead of Van Westering and Coetze with Mityukov (1:58.03) and Adam Telegdy (1:58.07) also through.
Men’s 200m Breaststroke
Qin Haiyang set a world record of 2:05.48 en-route to gold in Fukuoka but the Chinese is one of the many swimmers bypassing the World Championships.
Neither are Zac Stubblety-Cook or Matt Fallon – silver and bronze medallists last year – in Doha.
Matti Mattsson, the Tokyo bronze medallist, set the pace in heat three, going 2:09.15 with Olympic silver medallist Arno Kamminga and his Netherlands teammate Caspar Corbeau in the final prelim.
The Dutch pair were side by side in the centre lanes with Corbeau leading the way throughout until the final 25 when Lyubomir Epitropov of Bulgaria came past him to touch first in 2:10.57.
Mattsson was quickest into the semis ahead of Epitropov followed by Iruku Hiroshima (2:10.73), Corbeau (2:10.85), Erik Persson of Sweden (2:10.94), Nic Fink (2:11.00), Dong Zhihao – fourth in Fukuoka – (2:11.13) and Kamminga safely through in eighth. (2:11.22).
