Michael Phelps (Baltimore, Md.) earned the top seed in the men’s 200m butterfly with solid morning swim of 1:55.78. Phelps and Club Wolverine teammate Davis Tarwater went 1-2, with Tarwater just eight-tenths behind in 1:56.63. Japan’s Ryuichi Shibata clocked a 1:56.81 to round out the top three.
Phelps will swim the semifinal heat of the 200m fly following the highly-anticipated match-up against the Netherlands’s Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 200m freestyle, the first race of tonight’s final. Phelps and van den Hoogenband will face each other for the first time since the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where the Dutch swimmer won silver, and Phelps was the bronze medalist.
Katie Hoff (Towson, Md.) notched the second-fastest qualifying time in the women’s 200m free, posting a 1:58.17 in the preliminary heat. France’s Laure Manaudou will be the top seed in tonight’s semifinal with a time of 1:57.66. Josefin Lillhage of Sweden is the third seed (1:58.24), while American Olympian Dana Vollmer (Granbury, Texas) was just two-hundredths behind her in the fourth spot (1:58.26).
Brendan Hansen (Havertown, Pa.), who claimed gold last night in the 100m breast, got back in the pool this morning for the 50m distance, finishing as the third seed with a time of 27.64. South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh clocked the fastest morning swim in 27.49, and Italy’s Alessandro Terrin was just behind him in 27.53. American Scott Usher (Grand Island, Neb.) finished 28th.
In the men’s 800m free heats, Club Wolverine teammates Peter Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich.) and Erik Vendt (North Easton, Mass.) narrowly missed out in spots in the final, finishing ninth and tenth, respectively. Vanderkaay posted a time of 7:54.37, while Vendt touched in 7:54.48. Australia’s Craig Stevens is the top seed.
In addition to the four semifinal races, five medals are up for grabs, and eight Americans will be in the running to collect them. Phelps is up first in the 200m free, followed by Natalie Coughlin (Vallejo, Calif.) in the 100m back. The world-record holder is the fourth seed and will go for the gold from lane six.
Team USA has a chance for two medals in the women’s 1500m free. Hayley Peirsol (Irvine, Calif.) and Kate Ziegler (Great Falls, Va.) will both aim to repeat their feat of swimming the mile under 16 minutes, an accomplishment achieved by only one other woman: world record-holder Janet Evans.
Hayley Peirsol’s older brother, Aaron Peirsol, will also be up for his fourth third world title in the men’s 100m backstroke, an event in which he also holds the world record. In 2003, the Peirsols became the first brother-sister duo to medal at the same world championships when Hayley took silver in the 1500m free, followed by Aaron’s gold in the 100m back. Peirsol should face a considerable challenge in this final from teammate Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla.), who set the championship record during Monday evening’s semifinal race.
Finishing off the evening is the women’s 100m breast, in which Tara Kirk (Bremerton, Wash.) and Jessica Hardy (Long Beach, Calif.) will be looking to top the podium once again. At the 2005 World Championships in Montreal, Hardy was the silver medalist, and Kirk earned the bronze.
About USA Swimming: As the National Governing Body for competitive swimming in the United States, USA Swimming formulates the rules, implements policies and procedures, conducts national championships, disseminates safety and sports medicine information and selects athletes to represent the United States in international competition. USA Swimming has more than 300,000 members nationwide and sanctions more than 7,000 events each year. For more information, visit USA Swimming on-line.
