Franklin takes it easy, Sun moves into final
Print Edition
Missy Franklin cruised through the water yesterday, trying to use as little energy as possible with a tough double looming in the evening.
Franklin posted the fifth-fastest time in the 200-meter freestyle at 1 minute, 56.90 seconds. Camille Muffat of France, a silver medalist in this event at last year’s London Olympics, was top qualifier at 1:56.53.
Franklin is competing in eight events at the worlds, hoping to join Michael Phelps as the only swimmers to claim eight golds in a major international meet.
“When you have to swim each race three times, you really have to be smart about how you swim them,” Franklin said. “So I knew the goal for today was to make it back for semifinals.”
It was a good morning for the American team after being shut out of gold the previous night.
Tyler Clary led the field in the 200m butterfly, edging Olympic champion Chad le Clos of South Africa. Connor Jaeger posted the fastest time in prelims of the grueling 800m freestyle, just ahead of Sun Yang of China.
Sun, who already cruised to an easy win in the 400m free, eased into the final of the 800m free just 0.09 seconds behind Jaeger’s time of 7:49.28. Ryan Cochrane of Canada was third, only 0.30 separating the top three, with Michael McBroom of the US, Ous Mellouli of Tunisia and Pal Joensen of the Faeroe Islands all less than 2 seconds off the pace.
“I feel good,” Sun said. “It’s the kind of feeling you always have when you swim in the preliminaries.”
He knows he can’t take anything for granted, though, after teammate Ye Shiwen struggled to a fourth-place finish in the women’s 400m IM, an event she dominated at the Olympics.
“I was surprised,” Sun said through a translator. “Maybe after the Olympics she was feeling pressure. I also feel that pressure.”
Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa topped the prelims for the 50m breaststroke, a non-Olympic event. Christian Sprenger of Australia, who beat van der Burgh for gold in the 100m breast, advanced in fourth.
Franklin already has a gold in the 4x100m free relay and is a big favorite to make it two-for-two in the 100m backstroke. Then, with only a short break, she’ll return for the semifinals of the 200m free.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Franklin said. “Now that I have that race out of the way, I can really focus on my double tonight.”
Ruta Meilutyte, 16, of Lithuania was a big favorite in the women’s 100m breast.
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