★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★
★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★
≡ WORLD 25 m CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡
There were many star swimmers who skipped this year’s World Aquatics 25 m (short-course) Championships. So the meet is making bigger stars out of Americans Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass and Regan Smith.
Those three set five world (short-course) records on Friday while the U.S. men’s relay also got into the action (twice):
● Men/200 m Freestyle: 1:38.91, Luke Hobson (USA) ~ relay lead-off
● Men/4×200 m Freestyle: 6:40.51. United States (Luke Hobson, Carson Foster, Shaine Casas, Kieran Smith)
● Women/50 m Backstroke: 25.23, Regan Smith (USA)
● Women/200 m Breaststroke: 2:12.50, Kate Douglass (USA)
● Women/100 m Butterfly: 53.24, Gretchen Walsh (USA) ~ in heats
● Women/100 m Butterfly: 52.87, Gretchen Walsh (USA) ~ in semis
● Women/100 m Medley: 55.11, Gretchen Walsh (USA)
In the morning heats, Walsh crushed the 2022 World 100 Fly Record of 54.05 by Maggie Mac Neil (CAN) in the women’s 100 m Fly, touching in 53.24 and finishing almost 2 1/2 seconds ahead of the next fastest qualifier! It was her first race at the distance in short-course meters. Unbelievable.
She then improved in the evening semifinals, winning the second semi in 52.87, mauling her own mark and dropping more than a second off Mac Neil’s record in a single day.
Less than 30 minutes later, Walsh was back in the pool for the 100 Medley final and scored again, winning the gold and improving her own record from the semis from 55.71 to 55.11! It’s Walsh’s third world mark in this event since October, and her sixth world record of the meet, which means she has collected $150,000 (so far) in individual world-record bonuses, plus a share of the U.S. women’s record in the 4×100 m Free relay. This is amazing.
Teammate Kate Douglass came in second, in 56.49, with Beryl Gastaldello (FRA: 56.67) in third. Douglass was coming back for her second event, after she won the 200 m Breast, also in world-record time at 2:12.50m taking down her earlier 2:12.72 from the Singapore World Cup at the start of November.
It’s also Douglass’ second world record of the meet, after her 2:01.63 in the women’s 200 m Medley! Russian Evgenia Chikunova was a distant second (as a “neutral”) in 2:16.83, ahead of Alex Walsh of the U.S., who won bronze in 2:16.83.
Two races later, Mac Neil lost another world record, as American star Regan Smith took the women’s 50 m Back in 25.23, an 0.02 improvement on Mac Neil’s 25.25 from the 2022 Short-Course Worlds. She was followed by teammate Katharine Berkoff in 25.61 for the silver, and Kylie Masse (CAN: 25.78) got the bronze.
Jillian Cox of the U.S. had the fastest time of 15:41.29 in slower heats of the women’s 1,500 m, but that ended up good enough for bronze, as the “faster” race had only two who bettered her time: Paris bronze medalist Isabel Gose (GER: 15:24.69) and Simona Quadarella (ITA: 15:30.14).
The U.S. did get a shock as the team of Michael Andrew, Matt King, Claire Weinstein and Alex Shackell finished ninth in 1:31.06 in the heats of the Mixed 4×50 m Freestyle and did not advance to the final. Italy won the final in 1:28.50, ahead of Canada (1:28.60).
However, the men’s 4×200 m Freestyle team of Hobson, Foster, Casas and Kieran Smith won in 6:40.51, crushing the U.S. mark of 6:44.12 from the 2022 short-course Worlds. Wow. Australia was second, but way back in 6:45.54. Another $25,000 to be split four ways.
Hobson got another world mark for himself as the lead-off man, touching in 1:38.91, breaking the 1:39.37 mark by German Paul Biedermann from way back in 2009!
Swiss Noe Ponti, already with two world records here, set a meet record to win the men’s 100 Medley in 50.33, ahead of Bernhard Reitshammer (AUT: 51.11). Andrew was fourth in 51.37.
Russia’s Miron Lifintsev won his second event of the meet in the men’s 50 Back in a world junior record of 22.47. Spain’s Carles Coll Marti, who swims at Virginia Tech, won the men’s 200 m Breast in 2:01.55, with the U.S.’s A.J. Pouch in sixth (2:02.84).
The medal table shows the U.S. with 18 total medals (9-6-3) to nine for Canada (3-2-4) and seven for Australia (2-2-3). The meet closes on Sunday. Will the U.S. still be in Dreamland?
¶
★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.
For our updated, 885-event International Sports Calendar for the rest of 2024, 2025 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!
