Finke Makes It A Double Defence With 14:40 Trials Mark & Manuel Channels The Art Of Racing
Bobby Finke booked a ticket to the defence of the 800-1500 double in Paris and Simone Manuel harnessed the art of racing under duress in the splash-and-dash to complete the roster of winners as nine-day U.S. Trials drew to a close.
The curtain-closing session produced no great upsets, returned athletes who’ve been winners for the United States before to the Team USA Olympic swim squad and made David Johnston a 1500 Olympian and Gretchen Walsh a 50 free Olympian for the first time.
It all served as a reminder of that lessons we can read at the heart of Manuel’s title successes in the pool: the ability to get a hand to the wall first does not bow to time when the trial is tight. The other refresher in the mix, whether any needed it or not, was this: nine days of pressure is not to be compared with the stress-free tune-up or self-test for those who already have an Olympic ticket in their hands.
Manuel, who missed the cut for the dash final three years ago, five years after silver in 24.09 at Rio 2016, where she claimed shared gold with Canadian Penny Oleksiak in a 100m freestyle that shredded the form guide, also reminds us as third fastest 50m sprinter at U.S. trials but the winner nonetheless, that the art of racing in ultimate fight or flight mode is where it’s at.
That’s one of the greatest weapons in the American armoury in the pool at an Olympics, be it for gold or grabbing the minor spoils and floating the USA medal count to a high tide beyond the rest.
Of course, the clock does matter, Sarah Sjostrom‘s 23.75 dash in Rome today a case in point when it comes to balancing the art of racing with the winning speed. As Finke, who’s win completed the defence roster for Paris as we noted in our day 8 report (list repeated below the result sheets on this file), and Manuel will surely know, even the cauldron of U.S. Trials is no measure of what they must now do when the rest of the world is in the next lane.
Neither 14:59 nor 24.51 are likely to be good enough to get them into Paris finals, nor will their winning efforts of 14:40.28, a U.S. and Trials record for Finke over 1500m, and 24.13, Manuel’s winner in the 50m freestyle, be the stuff of gold when the Games get underway in the French capital in just over a month from now.
To join Finke, Johnston got his ticket by 0.26sec in a battle with 800m teamster Luke Whitlock in 14:52.74, which would not have made the Tokyo final. Walsh, with a 55.18 World record in the vault and 55.31 win in the 100 ‘fly at Trials, secured passage to the freestyle dash in 24.15, her semi of 24.06 ahead of Torri Huske‘s 24.09 good enough not only to make the showdown three years ago but claim a medal in a Tokyo final that saw five of the contenders race slower than they had in semis.
In the final three years ago, Abbey Weitzeil clocked 24.26 for third, while Huske’s 24.33 completed the first half of the dash clash.
The last races:
Men’s 1500m freestyle: Finke Makes It An 800-1500 Double Defence
Women’s 50m freestyle – Simone Manuel Books Solo Target For Paris
U.S. Trials Results in Full at Omega
The Complete List off Defenders & Titles That Won’t Be Defended in Paris
Finke Among The Holders of Titles To Be Defended:
Men: 50 free (Caeleb Dressel, USA); 800 and 1500 (Bobby Finke, USA); 100 breaststroke (Adam Peaty, GBR); 200 breaststroke (Zac Stubblety-Cook, AUS); 100 ‘fly (Dressel); 200 ‘fly (Kristof Milak, HUN); 200IM (Wang Shun*, CHN); 400IM (Chase Kalisz, USA) Women: 200 and 400 free (Ariarne Titmus, AUS); 800 and 1500 free (Katie Ledecky), USA; 100-200 backstroke (Kaylee McKeown, AUS); 200 breaststroke (Tatjana Schoenmaker, RSA); 100 ‘fly (Maggie Mac Neil, CAN) 200 ‘fly (Zhang Yufei*, CHN); 200IM (Yui Ohashi, JPN)
- – * – swimmers currently embroiled in the investigation into 23 Chinese positives for banned heart-booster trimetazidine in January 2021
The Titles That Won’t Be Defended:
Men: 100m free (Dressel); 200m free (Tom Dean, GBR); 400 free (Ahmed Hafnaoui but withdrawal stated by African Aquatics and the Tunisian swim federation not yet confirmed); 100 and 200 back (Evgeny Rylov, barred from the Games owing to his support for Putin’s illegal war on Ukraine)
Women: 50 and 100 free (Emma McKeon, AUS); 100 breaststroke (Lydia Jacoby, USA); 400 Medley (Ohashi)