2024 SC World Championships: Day 1 Finals Live Recap

2024 SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Jó napot! Good Afternoon my friends, or good morning, good evening, or good [insert your time of day here].

After a raucous and exciting first preliminary session started the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) 2024, it looks like much of the same momentum will be carried over into tonight. We look to crown our very first champions this evening, and we have six finals and four semifinals on tap.

Day 1 Finals Schedule & Heat Sheet

The first session starts off with a bang as Summer McIntosh looks to win her first SC Worlds medal in the 400 free. She was 3:57.55 in the prelims session as was defending Champions Lani Pallister, but one should expect them both to be faster. Flanking the pair on either side are the American duo of Claire Weinstein and Paige Madden, who were each less than a second and a half back of McIntosh.

From the 400 free, we quicken our pace up as we head to the semifinals of the 50s Fly. Both the Women’s and Men’s events are on World Record Watch as the USA’s Gretchen Walsh already broke it this morning, and Swiss star Noe Ponti is just .03 off of his own WR as both he and Nyls Korstanje broke the Championships record this morning.

Alternating Finals and Semifinals means that the next two events are looking to crown some champions. The Women’s 200 IM will see Kate Douglass looking to earn a repeated trip to the top of the podium, but it won’t be an easy task as she was just third this morning and will have to pass the top-seed Brit Abbie Wood and Canada’s Mary-Sophie Harvey, who will be contesting her second individual final of the session. On the men’s side, the USA’s Shaine Casas posted the top time this morning, the only swimmer under 1:52, but with all of the other finalists under 1:53.6 and with the likes of Daiya Seto, Finlay Knox, Alberto Razzetti, and Carson Foster in the field Casas will need to be faster if he hopes to win.

The 100 back, like the 50 fly, is a semifinal, but that by no means diminishes its excitement level. Multiple Olympic medalists will compete against each other for a spot in the Women’s final tomorrow. Regan Smith leads the charge, but Katharine Berkoff and Kylie Masse are close behind. Australia’s Iona Anderson and Neutral Athlete Anastasiya Shkurdai lead the first semifinal.

On the men’s side, home nation’s Hubert Kos will walk out to large partisan support as the Hungarian is the top seed and occupies lane 4 in the second semifinal, with Poland’s Kacper Stokowski leading the first semi.

The last and fastest heat of the 1500 for the men concludes the individual races and top seed Zalan Sarkany hopes that the enthusiasm fo Kos carries over to him as the Hungarian will look to win his first championship gold medal.

We conclude with the 400 free relays, where Italy put up the only sub 3:30 time this morning on the women’s side, and their men will be chasing after the top-seeded USA as the Italian men look to defend their title.

Women’s Relay Line-Ups & Men’s Relay Line-Ups

Women’s 400 Freestyle – Finals

Podium

1. Summer McIntosh (CAN) – 3:50.25 ***NEW EVERYTHING RECORD***
2. Lani Pallister (AUS) – 3:53.73 ***NEW OCEANIAN RECORD***
3. Mary-Sophie Harvey (CAN) – 3:54.88
4. Paige Madden (USA) – 3:55.12
5. Claire Weinstein (USA) – 3:56.12
6. Isabel Gose (GER) – 3:56.84
7. Leah Neale (AUS) – 4:01.45
8. Sofia Diakova (NAB) – 4:02.27

Not unexpected Canada’s Summer McIntosh was out fast in 55.14, more than a second under WR pace, but Australia’s Lani Pallister was sitting less than a body length away was also under WR pace as well. By the 200 mark, McIntosh, 1:53.53, had opened up the lead by over a body length.

With a 100 left, the teenager was 2.58 under WR pace and had a massive lead on Pallister, who started to fall off the pace and slipped back from the WR line. The line started to catch up with the Canadian, but her blistering pace was so much at the start that she still crushed the WR as she hit the wall in 3:50.25, cutting 1.05 off of the old record.

Pallister was also under WR pace for the first 200, but the 14 high/15 low 25s saw him slip back off the pace. However, Pallister’s time was still a massive PB and over a second faster than her winning time in Melbourne. Her 3:53.73 would have erased the Championship record had McIntosh not done it, but her time does erase Ariarne Titmus‘s national and continental records.

McIntosh’s teammate, Mary-Sophie Harvey, took the bronze. Known for amazing backhalfs, the Canadian was 6th at the 200 mark, 1:57.63, and came home in 1:57.15, negative splitting the race to record a new PB in 3:54.88.

The two Americans, Paige Madden and Claire Weinstein, were just off the podium finishing in 4th and 5th with times of 3:55.12 and 3:56.12.

Women’s 50 Butterfly – Semifinals

• World Record: 24.02 – Gretchen Walsh, USA (2024)
• World Junior Record: 24.55 – Claire Curzan, USA (2021)
• World Championship Record: 24.44 – Ranomi Kromowidjojo, NED (2021)
• 2022 SC World Champion: Torri Huske, USA & Maggie MacNeil, CAN – 24.64

Top 8

1. Gretchen Walsh (USA) – 23.94 ***NEW WORLD RECORD***
2. Beryl Gastaldello (FRA) – 24.67
3. Tessa Giele (NED) – 24.68
4. Arina Surkova (NAB) – 24.71
5. Maaike de Waard (NED) – 24.76
6. Alexandria Perkins (AUS) – 24.89
7. Melanie Henique (FRA) – 24.93
8. Lily Price (AUS)/Silvia di Pietro (ITA) -25.13 ***SWIM-OFF***

The first heat was a tight affair but went the way of lane 6’s Beryl Gastaldello. The Frenchwoman, who was 25.36 this morning, was out much faster as she hit the 25 wall in 11.34. Closing in 13.33, Gastaldello got her hands on to the wall first in the heat in a new PB of 24.67, .04 ahead of Surkova, who was the 2nd fastest this morning.

As for the second heat…

23.94. It bears repeating 23.94.

Gretchen Walsh, with an absolutely perfect swim, became the first woman in history to break the 24-second barrier in the 50 fly, a barrier which, before this morning’s 24.04 performance, seemed perhaps a step too far.

Out in 11.01, which was less than.3 ahead of Maaike de Waard, Walsh did her damage on the back 25, as she was the only swimmer to come home in under 13 seconds, with her 12.93 the fastest last 24 by .4 of a second. On live stream, the line seemed to be getting away from the UVA swimmer, but with her long arms, Walsh secured her second WR of the day and her 2nd bonus check of the day.

Walsh was .74 ahead of Tessa Giele, who was second in the heat with her 24.68 but was a massive drop from her 25.01 prelims swims this morning.

Men’s 50 Butterfly- Semifinals

Top 8

1. Noe Ponti (SUI) – 21.43 ***NEW WORLD RECORD***
2. Nyle Korstanje (NED) – 21.81
3. Ilya Kharun (CAN) – 21.93
4. Marius Kuscj (GER) – 21.99
5. Tzen Wein Teong (SGP) – 22.04
6. Grigor Perkarski (NAB) – 22.05
7. Michele Busa (ITA) – 22.08
8. Szebasztian Szabo (HUN) – 22.09

Women’s 200 IM – Finals

Podium

Men’s 200 IM – Finals

• World Record: 1:48.88 — Leon Marchand, FRA (2024)
• World Junior Record: 1:51.45 – Matt Sates, RSA (2021)
• World Championship Record: 1:49.63 — Ryan Lochte, USA (2012)
• 2022 SC World Champion: Matt Sates, RSA — 1:50.15

Podium

Women’s 100 Backstroke – Semifinals

Top 8

Men’s 100 Backstroke – Semifinals

Top 8

Men’s 1500 Freestyle – Timed Final (Last Heat)

Last Heat Results

Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay -Final

• World Record: 3:25.43, Australia (2022)
• World Championship Record: 3:25.43 – Australia (2022)
• 2022 SC World Champion: Australia, 3:25.43

Podium

Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay – Final

• World Record: 3:02.75 – Italy (2022)
• World Championship Record: 3:02.75 – Italy (2022)
• 2022 SC World Champion: Italy, 3:02.75

Podium