Editorial content for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships is sponsored by FINIS, a longtime partner of Swimming World and leading innovator of suits, goggles and equipment. World Championships, Day 8: 400 IM Favorites Line Up Behind Jenna Forrester For all the pre-race favorites in the 400 IM, the final will be ostensibly chasing Jenna Forrester, in a World Aquatics Championships where everything has come up aces for the Aussies. Forrester went 4:35.88, winning a fast final heat of four at Marine Messe Hall in Fukuoka. But many of the main players are there, including both Americans and Summer McIntosh, the world record holder who coasted into second place with a time of 4:36.57. Katie Grimes qualified for Sunday night’s final in fifth with a time of 4:38.89. Alex Walsh is in an outside lane but still comfortably in the final in 4:39.42. The 400 IM has opened up in the last Olympic cycle. Gone are dominant names of the past like Katinka Hosszu, a five-time World champ in this event, and Mireia Belmonte. A new power structure is finding its way. The disqualification of Emma Weyant at American trials dented that sense of order, with the reigning Olympic silver medalist and Worlds bronze medalist missing out in her signature event. Yui Ohashi, the reigning double Olympic champ, also isn’t swimming the 400 IM in Fukuoka. Walsh stepped into that void. She’s already won a silver medal at the 200 IM, her preferred distance. Most of the 200 IMers have fallen away from the 400, the shorter IM becoming almost a sprinter’s domain. Of the eight finalists in the 200, only three (Walsh, Yu Yiting and Forrester) are even entered in the 400, and Yu was eliminated in prelims with the 11th fastest time. Grimes has had a most unique week – really month – in Fukuoka. She booked an Olympic spot in the women’s 10-kilometer open water swim by finishing third and also swam on the mixed 4×1,500 relay. That first swim was 15 days ago, on July 15. She’s added swims on the second and eighth days of the swimming competition, finishing a distant eighth in the 1,500 in 16:04.21 and then recovering until the 400 IM. She performed well in the latter, winning the first heat of two circle-seeded heats in 4:38.39. It would turn out to be a slow heat, with four times in the final heat beating her. Hence Walsh, who finished second in Grimes’ heat, dropping to seventh. Katie Shanahan squeaked into the eighth and final spot in 4:39.42. Forrester won the final heat ahead of McIntosh. Mio Narita charged to finish in 4:38.05, giving Japan a finalist, and Freya Colbert was fourth in the heat and overall in 4:38.29.
