A Special Thanks to Deep Blue Media for providing the images from this meet World Championships, Day Six Prelims: Tom Dean Leads 200 Free Prelims With Popovici Qualifying Sixth The final day of the Short Course World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, will feature a showdown in the men’s 200 freestyle featuring Olympic gold medalist Tom Dean as the top seed with a flurry of big-name competitors lurking, including defending champion Hwang Sunwoo and Romania’s David Popovici, a teenage sensation who stormed to the top of the record book this summer but yet to match those feats in short course. Men’s action during the final session of prelims included the 200 free in addition to the 200 backstroke, where Ryan Murphy will be favored to earn his third backstroke gold medal of the meet, as well as the 400 medley relay. Olympic champion Tom Dean posted the top time in the 200 free prelims as he held off Katsuhiro Matsumoto of Japan to win the fifth of six heats of the event. Dean swam a time of 1:40.98, followed by Matsumoto’s 1:41.29. Both men easily eclipsed the 1:41.60 that South Korea’s Hwang Sunwoo swam to win last year’s title in the event. France’s Maxime Grousset, who took silver in the 100 free earlier in the meet, made a rare appearance in the 200 free and qualified third in 1:41.79. The USA’s Drew Kibler finished fourth in 1:41.88 while Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys, the silver medalist in the event in 2018 and bronze medalist last year, took fifth in 1:42.21. David Popovici, the Romanian teenager who won the long course world title in a dominant performance in June, took sixth in 1:42.31 as he aims for his first medal of the meet after a fourth-place finish in the 100 free. Australia’s Thomas Neill was seventh in 1:42.38 while Hwang just got into the final in his search for repeat gold, edging out 400 free winner Kieran Smith, 1:42.44 to 1:42.54, for the last spot in the final. Shaine Casas of the United States went through fastest to the 200 backstroke final with a time of 1:49.46. The 22-year-old American has already won three medals in Melbourne on relays, but he narrowly missed podium finishes in the 200 IM and 100 IM, and now he will try to match or surpass his silver-medal finish in this event last year. Casas finished just ahead of France’s Mewen Tomac (1:49.61) while Casas’ American teammate Ryan Murphy placed third in 1:49.79. Murphy, who typically does just enough in prelims to qualify for the final, will look to add a 200 back title to his golds in the 50 back and 100 back plus a relay gold and a relay silver. Italy’s Lorenzo Mora also broke 1:50 with his time of 1:49.79, while France’s Yohann Ndoye-Brouard (1:50.12), Great Britain’s Luke Greenbank (1:50.34) and Japan’s Ryota Naito (1:50.78) qualified fifth through seventh, respectively. Poland’s Radoslaw Kawecki finished eighth in 1:50.97, narrowly qualifying for a chance at a fifth short course world title in this event. Kawecki won gold in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2021 along with a bronze in 2018. The U.S. men will battle against Japan and Italy for the 400 medley relay title. The Americans took the top seed in 3:23.55 behind Hunter Armstrong, Nic Fink, Trenton Julian and Carson Foster. Fink will certainly remain on the squad in finals while Ryan Murphy will enter for the backstroke leg. Shaine Casas is an option for butterfly, and either Casas, Drew Kibler or Kieran Smith could anchor the squad. Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, Ippei Watanabe, Yuya Tanaka and Katsumi Nakamura placed second in 3:32.68, and Italy’s Thomas Ceccon, Simone Cerasuolo, Alberto Razzetti and Paolo Conte Bonin took third in 3:23.81. The Italians will bring in a whole new quartet for the final: Lorenzo Mora, Nicolo Martinenghi, Matteo Rivolta and Alessandro Miressi. All have already won individual medals in their respective 100-meter events except for Rivolta, who is the second seed entering Sunday evening’s 100 fly final. Germany, Australia, Canada, China and the Czech Republic also qualified for the final. Of those teams, the one with the best chance to break into the medals is likely of Australia since 100 free champion Kyle Chalmers will handle anchor duties.
Men’s 200 Freestyle
Men’s 200 Backstroke
Men’s 400 Medley Relay
