MOSCOW, Russia, October 19. THE second day of short course meters preliminary action at the Moscow stop of the FINA World Cup featured more exciting setups for tonight’s finals.
Men’s 1500 freestyle
Josh Prenot of the United States led the swimmers who competed in timed final swimming in the mile in preliminaries with a 15:12.63. The remaining five competitors hail from Russia: Alexander Federov (15:43.41), Sergey Belyaev (15:55.02), Evgeny Skomorokhov (16:03.28), Nikita Beyaev (16:06.09) and Sergey Groshev (16:19.95).
Women’s 100 freestyle
Missy Franklin of the USA will be the top qualifier for tonight’s final with her prelim time of 53.36. Germany’s Daniela Schreiber qualified second with a 54.08, just ahead of Allison Schmitt of the USA’s 54.32 and Russia’s Margarita Nesterova, who qualified fourth with a 54.40. The rest of the final’s qualifiers include Russia’s Vitalina Simonova (54.53), USA’s Lia Neal (54.66), Zheng Yifei of China (55.00) and Victoria Andreeva of Russia (55.36).
Men’s 200 freestyle
Three of the members of the 200 freestyle final at the long course world championships will compete in tonight’s world cup final: top seed Nikita Lobintsev of Russia (1:46.41), fourth-seeded Paul Biedermann of Germany (1:47.26) and sixth-seeded Michael Phelps of the United States (1:47.39). The rest of the final field will consist of Alexander Sukhorukov of Russia (1:46.42, second seed), China’s Zhang Zhongchao (1:47.21, third seed), Russia’s Evgeny Lagunov (1:47.33, fifth seed), and a tie for seventh between Russia’s Artem Lobuzov and Poland’s Pawel Korzeniowski with matching times of 1:47.71.
Women’s 50 breaststroke
Valentina Artemyeva of Russia will be the top seed with a 30.21, ahead of world championship silver medalist Yulia Efimova, who swam a 31.02. Russia also qualified in third and fourth place with Ekaterina Baklakova (31.44) and Daria Deeva (31.45), Korea’s Hye Jin Kim (31.52) and Darae Jeong (31.83) prevented an all-Russia final by qualifying fifth and sixth, respectively. Russia’s Vera Kalashnikova (32.00) also got into the final, with the final spot up for grabs in a swim-off after Ekaterina Uymenova and Natalia Geraskina both swam times of 32.20. Uymenova earned that spot with a winning swim-off time of 31.79 to Geraskina’s 31.94.
Men’s 100 breaststroke
Russia occupied the top three qualifying spots for tonight’s final with Sergey Geybel taking pole position in 59.66. Stanislav Lakhtyukhov (59.87) and Viacheslav Sinkevich (1:00.11) took second and third, respectively. Germany’s Marco Koch (1:00.13), Japan’s Naoya Tomita (1:00.34) and Kazuki Otsuka (1:00.37), Canada’s Mike Brown (1:00.53) and Russia’s Denis Krivasheev (1:00.59) will also line up for the final.
Women’s 400 individual medley
Timed final competition saw Russia’s Irina Nazarova post the fastest time of 4:54.79. Ekaterina Andreeva finished second in 4:58.93, while Singapore’s Wei Wen Tseng posted the third-fastest time of 5:23.94. Russia’s Aygul Sagirova and Valentina Zapatrina drew disqualifications.
Men’s 100 butterfly
Michael Phelps, the reigning long course world champion in this event, will face a tough field in the final. Australia’s Geoff Huegill posted the fastest prelim time of 51.74, ahead of short course world record holder Evgeny Korotyshkin of Russia (52.12) and reigning long course world bronze medalist Tyler McGill of the United States (52.15). Hidemasa Sano of Japan qualified fourth in 52.69, while Phelps posted the fifth-fastest time of 52.70.
Chad Le Clos of South Africa (52.71) could find himself in the rare position of not winning prize money in a World Cup race this season, but will line up for the final as the sixth qualifier. Milorad Cavic of Serbia, the reigning Olympic silver medalist, will be in the seventh spot with his 52.85, followed by Russia’s Nikolay Skvortsov (52.92).
Women’s 100 backstroke
Missy Franklin posted her second top qualifying time of the day with a 58.26, followed by Australia’s Rachel Goh, who posted a 58.63. Russia will dominate the remainder of the final field, comprised of Kseniya Moskvina (59.18), Anastasia Zueva (59.78), Maria Gromova (1:00.77), Alexandra Papusha (1:01.10), Margarita Nesterova (1:01.42) and Julia Larina (1:01.55).
Men’s 50 backstroke
The meet’s first all-Russia final provided a little bit of excitement for the crowd. Vitaly Melnikov leads the field with a top time of 24.63, followed by Vitaly Borisov (24.65), Andrey Arbuzov (24.83), Sergey Makov (24.85), Artem Dubovskoy (25.07), Mikhail Noskov (25.12) and Pavel Chesnokov (25.19). Pavel Kosmynin and Alexey Rudenko necessitated a swim-off after posting matching times of 25.63, with Kosmynin earning his way into the final with a 25.73 in the swim-off ahead of Rudenko’s 25.79. Notably, Jacob Pebley of the USA qualified in 10th place with a 25.88.
Women’s 200 butterfly
Hye Ra Choi posted the fastest qualifying time of the prelims with a 2:09.11. Gong Jie of China (2:10.39) and Andrea Kropp of the United States (2:11.50) will be the other non-Russians in the final, qualifying second and third, respectively. The remainder of the championship final field, all from Russia, include Anastasia Lyazeva (2:15.57), Anna Kiseleva (2:16.15), Daria Tcvetkova (2:18.59), Irina Bespalova (2:19.13) and Elina Maksumova (2:20.09). With only 10 swimmers competing, Kristina Grinberg (2:24.15) found herself on the outside looking in, while Evgenia Kaledinskaya was disqualified.
Men’s 200 individual medley
Hidemasa Sano of Japan qualified first with a 1:58.58, with Russia’s Dmitry Zhilin taking second place with a 1:58.86 and Japan’s Daiya Seto placing third in 1:59.34. Rounding out the qualifiers for the final are Australia’s Kenneth To (1:59.35), Kazuki Otsuka of Japan (1:59.43), Diogo Carvalho of Portugal (1:59.64), Chad Le Clos of South Africa (2:00.01) and Russia’s Dmitry Gorbunov (2:00.20).
Women’s 400 freestyle
Chelsea Chenault and Allison Schmitt of the United States, as well as Russia’s Elena Sokolova, distanced themselves from the rest of the field with the only sub-4:10 prelim times. Chenault qualified first with a 4:08.30, with Schmitt second in 4:09.91 and Sokolova third with a 4:09.93.
The remainder of the championship heat will feature Russia in fourth through eighth place: Ksenia Yuskova (4:14.50), Irina Arzhantseva (4:17.75), Kira Volodina (4:17.93), Valeriya Kolotushkina (4:18.77) and Alena Kudryashova (4:20.43).
Men’s 50 freestyle
Canada’s Brent Hayden posted the fastest preliminary time of 21.93, ahead of Australia’s Matt Abood (22.00) and Sergey Fesikov of Russia (22.02). Also set to compete in the final are Russia’s Evgeny Lagunov (22.13), Australia’s Eamon Sullivan (22.18), Russia’s Andrey Arbuzov (22.22), Russia’s Nikita Lobintsev (22.31) and China’s Shi Yang (22.34).
Women’s 200 breaststroke
Andrea Kropp of the USA topped the prelim field with a time of 2:23.67, with Japan’s Kanako Watanabe right behind in 2:23.95. Also lining up for the championship final will be Darae Jeong of Korea (2:24.47), Anastasia Chaun of Russia (2:25.30), Vera Kalashnikova of Russia (2:26.63), Canada’s Annamay Pierse (2:26.94), Irinia Novikova of Russia (2:27.14) and Elin Maartensson of Sweden (2:27.69).
Women’s 100 individual medley
Ekaterina Andreeva qualified for her second final of the day, posting the top time of 1:01.68 in the sprint IM. Erica Morningstar of Canada was second in 1:01.87, and Yulia Efimova of Russia qualified third with a 1:02.07. Rounding out the championship final heat will be Liu Jing of China (1:02.14), Kristina Kochetkova of Russia (1:02.31), Daria Belyakina of Russia (1:02.68), Olga Klyuchnikova of Russia (1:02.87) and Victoria Andreeva (1:02.91).
Men’s 200 backstroke
Jacob Pebley of the United States could give the USA youth team its first gold medal of the meet after qualifying first in 1:56.79. The rest of the swimmers in the final will give him a tough race, which will include Artem Dubovskoy of Russia (1:56.85), Anton Anchin of Russia (1:57.40), China’s Cheng Feiyi (1:57.61), Alexander Tikhonov of Russia (1:58.73), Michael Phelps of the United States (1:58.78), Pavel Kosmynin of Russia (1:59.22) and Sergey Makov (1:59.63).
Women’s 50 butterfly
Therese Alshammar closed out the prelim session with the top time in the sprint butterfly with a time of 25.85. Lu Ying of China will place second in 26.06, with Vasilisa Vladykina of Russia taking third with a 26.66. Also taking lanes in the final from Russia, in fourth through seventh, will be Irina Bespalova (26.75), Anastasia Lyazeva (27.09), Daria Tcvetkova (27.19) and Maria Ugolkova (27.23). Germany’s Daniela Schreiber (27.33) will also swim in the final.
