Saturday, December 17, 2022
Flickinger Leads Way on FINA World Championships (25m) Night Five
The penultimate day of the 2022 FINA World Championships (25m) included four medals added to the U.S. tally, putting the Americans in the lead for gold (13), silver (10) and total (28) medals, as well as a share for the most bronze (5) medals with one day to go.
Hali Flickinger was the lone American to stand atop the podium on night five of the competition, doing so in the 400m IM. The world title gives Flickinger her first individual gold in an international competition since winning the 200m butterfly at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships. With the title, she also became the 20th American to win gold at the competition so far.
“I took it out fast,” Flickinger said. “It was fun and I just wanted to swim my own race. I know my strengths and my weaknesses, so I just tried to do my best.”
Leah Smith also swam the event, finishing fourth in 4:29.18.
The men’s 400 IM followed, seeing brothers Jake and Carson Foster take the water together in international competition for the first time in their history. In the end, it was Carson Foster who nabbed a podium spot, going 3:57.63 for silver.
Carson Foster hung tight with eventual gold medalist, Japan’s Daiya Seto, for the first half of the race before Seto pulled ahead in the breaststroke leg.
“Honestly, I would’ve liked to go a little faster and place one spot higher,” Carson Foster said. “That’s a race that – no matter what the result was – I'll always remember getting to walk out with my brother (Jake). Sharing that with him is what I’m taking away from tonight.”
Jake Foster finished sixth in 4:02.51.
The men’s and women’s 4x50m medley relays also took place tonight and saw back-to-back silvers for the U.S. The men’s team – Ryan Murphy (22.61), Nic Fink (25.24), Shaine Casas (22.13) and Michael Andrew (20.39) – posted a new American record time of 1:30.37.
“The lineups we put together for finals were the right lineups, gave us the best chance at gold medals,” head coach Braden Holloway said. “We were just short on both. Both were exciting races, fast swimming. We were a little conservative on our relay starts; that’s an area we can improve on to get some time back. An American record for the men, nonetheless. The women were right at the world record at the finish. They battled hard and executed great races. We just could’ve been quicker on our relay exchanges to put us in a better position to be at the wall first. That’s something we can learn from as we move into tomorrow’s medleys.”
The women’s team was comprised of Claire Curzan (25.75), Lilly King (29.00), Torri Huske (24.94) and Kate Douglass (22.72), who fell just short of Australia for gold.
In addition to the medalists above, Alex Walsh, Annie Lazor, Erika Brown, Natalie Hinds, Hunter Armstrong, Trenton Julian and Kieran Smith earn silvers for their part in the event’s prelims.
In other finals events, Erika Brown finished seventh in the 50m freestyle in 23.76, while the men’s 800m freestyle saw a fifth-place finish from David Johnston (7:34.33) and an eighth-place finish from Charlie Clark (7:37.54).
Competition continues with heats taking place on December 17 at 7 p.m. ET, while the last finals session takes place tomorrow at 3:30 a.m. ET. Both sessions will be streamed on www.youtube.com/fina1908. For more on the competition, click here.