Day five at the Budapest swimming World Championships and it was the young guns
who continued to shine in the pool. On today's video from Propulsion Swimming,
we're going to be taking you through all of the day's action,
as well as looking ahead to day six. So let's jump straight into it.
We kicked off the evening's racing with the Women's 200m butterfly final and following a
common theme throughout these championships, another World Junior mark was broken.
Yes, 15 year old Canadian superstar, Summer McIntosh continued her fine meet and set a new
World Junior mark in a 2:05.20. The race was taken out by eventual bronze medallist Zhang Yufei,
but it was the third 50 where Summer McIntosh really staked her claim and
never looked back. Despite being the slowest off pretty much every wall, she ended up winning
this race with relative ease, with American Hali Flickinger winning the silver for USA.
Next up on day five was the Women's 100m freestyle semi-finals and our first chance
to see Sarah Sjostrom in the water. The Swede looked incredibly impressive in the first
semi-final, with a fantastic final 50 to finish in a time of 53.02. In the second semi-final we saw a
variety of different swimming styles all with equal effect. The Americans Claire Curzan and
Torri Huske showcased their incredible underwater skills to cement their place in tomorrow's final,
but it was Mollie 0'Callaghan with a near negative split 100m freestyle
that really stole the show. There's plenty of people that saying she left too much in
the tank and she went out far too slow, but she goes into tomorrow's final as the fastest seed,
so we see no issue with the tactics at all. We can't wait to see the battle
between this youngster and of course the experienced head of Sjostrom tomorrow.
Next up the Men's 100m freestyle final, an event that had a lot of hype about it with a potential
World Record on the horizon for Romanian, David Popovici. However the race failed to live up to
the hype, with some relatively slow times across the board - perhaps a sign of the pressure put
on all of these swimmers knowing that the world's media was watching. But it was the young Romanian
who won an incredibly competitive race, with the top three being split by only 0.13 of a
second. And if there's one thing we've learned after the Tokyo Olympics, and this meet so far,
is that the time doesn't matter, it's all about who gets their hand on the wall first.
The Women's 50m backstroke final was the closest finish you are going to see at these World
Championships, with a blanket finish. Essentially the top six swimmers were all separated by 0.16
seconds and it was serial World Champion, Kylie Masse, who got the touch ahead of her rivals,
giving Canada their third medal in three finals on day five. If there's ever an argument to put
the 50m into the Olympic program, we think this is the race for that high entertainment
and a whole field with a chance of a medal. Come on IOC, put it in, you know you want to.
The Men's 200m breaststroke semi-finals and in truth this event already looks sewn up,
with tomorrow's final being a Zac Stubblety-Cook procession. The question is: how close can he
get to his World Record that he set in may? He finished his semi-finals with a time of 2:06.72,
a full two seconds clear of his nearest rival, Anton McKee. Do you think Zac breaks his World
Record now or at the Commonwealth Games later this summer? Let us know in the comments below.
The next final of day five was the Men's 200m Individual Medley and Frenchman Leon Marchand
writes his name into the record books as just the third man to win gold at both the
200 and 400 at a single World Championships. He joins some esteemed company in Michael Phelps
and Ryan Lochte. What an incredible meet this young man is having. With Bob Bowman
in his corner heading into the Paris Olympics, Leon Marchand is going
to be incredibly tough to beat. It's also worth giving a shout out to American, Carson Foster,
who comes second in this one. He looks like he has an equally exciting future in the IM races.
Rounding out the individual events on day five for the women was the 200m breaststroke and in
this one it looked like a return to form for American Lilly King. King seems to be getting
better and better with every swim she has in the Budapest pool. However, it was Australian Jenna
Strauch who pushed away from King in the 3rd 50 to take home the victory and go into tomorrow's
final as fastest qualifier. In the second semi-final there was a comfortable victory
for Teterevkova; and Kelsey Wog joined her as the one and two. And it looks to be between
those four and potentially Kate Douglass and Molly Renshaw in tomorrow's final.
The Men's 200 backstroke semi-finals look to have set up a mouth-watering head-to-head between the
Americans and the British backstrokers. In the first of the semi-finals it was
Brodie Williams who touched just ahead of teammate Luke Greenback in a 1:56.17.
In the second semi-final it was Ryan Murphy who chased down teammate Shaine Casas
to secure his place as the fastest qualifier in tomorrow's final. All four of these guys
showcase some incredible underwater skills off every turn so for tomorrow's final, pay
attention to those underwater shots if you want to learn a thing or two about dolphin leg kick.
And for the final event of day five it was the Women's 4x200 freestyle relay and there were
plenty of talking points in this one. Let's start off with that young Canadian again,
Summer McIntosh. She led off the Canadian relay team in a time that would have won
the 200m freestyle individual. Now I know that counts for nothing, however, leading into Paris
that's another event she could potentially add to her already impressive schedule. And
the next talking point was the United States tactics. Heading into this relay they decided
to put their fastest swimmer, Katie Ledecky, on the third leg for this one and she turned out
an incredible 1:53.6, which essentially was the key component to them getting the
victory over Australia. Now there were plenty of relay mistakes from America
at the Tokyo Olympics but so far through these World Championships,
they seem to have corrected most of those faults. So that just about rounds up today's a recap from
Propulsion Swimming of the Budapest swimming World Championships. If you haven't SUBSCRIBED already
please do so so you stay up to date with our day 6 recap. Until then I'll catch you on the next one!