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 The theme of the 13th FINA Championships, daily World Records, continued during Day 6 action. Today's finals saw the men's 200 Back, women's 100 Free, women's 50 Fly, men's 100 Fly, and men's 800 Free Relay records go down.
It all got started with the women's 100 Free. Current World Record Holder Britta Steffen, of Germany, lowered her mark to 52.07 as she scooped up the gold medal ahead of Fran Halsall (52.87) and Libby Trickett (52.93). The American duo of Amanda Weir and Dana Vollmer went 4-5 with respective times of 53.12 and 53.30.
Next event was the men's 200 Back final, which featured a hotly contested race for the gold between Aaron Peirsol, Japan's Ryosuke Irie, and Ryan Lochte. Peirsol redeemed himself for his 100 Back final and took the gold as he lowered his own WR to 1:51.92. Irie touched second in 1:52.51, while Lochte snared the bronze in 1:53.82. He would later take the pool for the 800 Free Relay final.
The women's 50 Fly semis was the day's 3rd straight event with a record-setting finish, thanks to Therese Alshammar's 25.07 finish. She will be pushed in the final my Marleen Veldhuis (25.28), Ingvild Snildal (25.53), as well as Marieke Guehrer (25.58), and 100 Fly WR holder Sarah Sjostrom (25.76).
The men's 50 Free broke the day's World Record-palooza, but there was no shortage of excitement. Fred Bousquet set a new meet record to qualify first with a 21.21 swim in the 2nd semi. In the 1st semi, Croatia's Duje Draganja hit in 21.29, to score the 2nd seed. Amaury Leveaux (21.32) and Cesar Cielo (21.35) advance as does Cullen Jones, whose 21.40 established a new American Record. Fellow American Nathan Adrian will also challenge for a medal, qualifying 7th in 21.46.
Up next was the women's 200 Breast final. After qualifying first with a WR mark, Canada's Annamay Pierse settled for silver (2:21.84) as Serbia's Nadja Higl claimed the title with a 2:21.84 effort. Mirna Jukic snagged the final spot on the podium after a 2:21.97 race. Rebecca Soni, who was seeded 2nd, just missed the podium, finishing 4th in 2:22.15; well off her semifinal time.
The men's 100 Fly semifinal was the focal point of the day as the rivalry between Michael Phelps and Mike Cavic heated up even more.Phelps took the first semi in 50.48, and was immediately one-upped by Cavic, who shattered Phelps' World Record with a 50.01 that nearly broke the 50 second barrier. It sets up quite the battle during the final!
In the women's 200 Back, Kirsty Coventry set the tone with a 2:05.86 championship record performance that was well ahead of the rest of the semifinalists. Anastasia Zueva had the next qualifying time of 2:07.00, followed by Elizabeth Simmonds (2:07.21), Team USA's Elizabeth Beisel (2:07.48), and 100 Back World Record holder Gemma Spofforth (2:07.64). America's Liz Pelton grabbed the final qualifying spot with a 2:09.57 swim.
The final individual event of the session was the men's 200 Breast final. Hungary's Daniel Gyurta (2:07.64) out touched USA's Eric Shanteau (2:07.65) for the gold by .01 of a second. There was a tie for third between Giedrius Titenis and World Record Holder Christian Sprenger (2:07.80).
The United States kept their stranglehold on the men's 800 Free Relay title by improving their Beijing WR to 6:58.55 thanks to Michael Phelps, Ricky Berens, Dave Walters, and Ryan Lochte. Peter Vanderkaay and Davis Tarwater swam in the prelims to help Team USA qualify first for the final.
Full results can be found on the OmegaTiming website.
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