Villacrusis beats q’fying time

Christian Villacrusis, seen here competing in the 100m breaststroke swim in last month’s All Schools Meet, joined the same event in the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships (25M) last Wednesday night at the Hamad Aquatic Centre in Doha, Qatar. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Villacrusis completed the four-lap swim in 1:18.93, beating his qualifying time (1:22.35) listed on the event’s start list. The 14-year-old swimmer placed fourth on Heat 1, joining eight other participants in one of the qualifying races in the event. He was the youngest swimmer in his heat, sharing the distinction with Guam’s Tanner Poppe.

Villacrusis finished ahead of Poppe, who timed in at 1:24.49, and two other swimmers—Seychells’ Payet Justin (1:19.97) and Benin’s Awoussou Hodadje Ablam (1:26.91)—in his heat. Botswana’s Kitso Matija won the heat with his 1:08.65, followed by the Federate State of Micronesia’s Dionisio Augustine (1:13.11), Uganda’s Elisha Tibatemwa (1:13.22), VIllacrusis, Payet, Poppe, and Ablam.

Great Britain’s Adam Peaty posted the fastest qualifying time in the 100m breaststroke event after submitting 57.02 seconds, but failed to eclipse the world (55.61 seconds) and championship (56.80 seconds) records Cameron Van Der Burgh of South Africa holds. Adam later broke the championship record as he timed in at 56.43 seconds in the semifinals to lead seven other finalists. Van Der Burgh also made it to the finals with his 57.18 seconds and will be joined by Russia’s Kirill Prigoda (56.93 seconds), Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki (57.06), Slovenia’s Damir Dugonjic (57.09), Brazil’s Felipe Franca Silva (57.21), France’s Giacomo Perez-Dortona (57.24), and the U.S.’ Cody Miller (57.28).

Meanwhile, the two other CNMI participants—Victoria Chentsova and Takumi Sugie—in the five-day competition had their first events yesterday.

Chentsova, who was the Commonwealth’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony of the event last Wednesday night, was scheduled to join the qualifying race in the 800 freestyle qualifying swim at 12:48pm (7:48pm Saipan time) yesterday. She was on Heat 1 and listed her qualifying time at 10:11.26.

Chentsova was set to race against Myanmar’s Khant Khant Su San (9:51.10), Moldova’s Ana Semkruncic (9:38.56), Faroe Islands’ Cecilia Eysturdal (9:05.08), Barbados’ Lani Cabrera (9:01.10), El Salvador’s Rebeca Quinteros (8:59.36), Peru’s Erika Naranjo Garcia (9:01.08), Turkey’s Tuana Ayca Bahtoglu (9:01.33), India’s Malavika Vishwanath (9:24.45), and Vietnam’s Anh Vien Thi Nguyen (9:45.00).

Sugie had an earlier race than Chentsova with his qualifying swim in the 50m freestyle slated yesterday at 10:59am (5:59pm Saipan). Sugie swam on Heat 2 and had a qualifying time of 27.88 seconds. He held the second fastest qualifying time with the best mark belonging to Palau’s Shawn Wallace Dingilius (27.58 seconds).

Joining Sugie and Dingilius on Heat 2 were Congo’s Jynior Ndinga (29.24 seconds), Ethiopia’s Robel Kiros Habte (29.08), Tonga’s Tongli Panuve (28.46), Burundi’s Idriss Mutankabandi (28:00), Nepal’s Miraj Prajapati (28.19), Central African Republic’s Shad Perriere (28.59), and Yemen’s Sami Al-Sayaghi (29.10) and Yousef Al-Behmi (29.30).

After the 50m freestyle event, Sugie along with Villacrusis will conclude their campaign in Doha this Saturday when they compete in the 100m freestyle race. Chentsova, on the other hand, will have her second and last event—400m freestyle—today.