2023 PRO SWIM SERIES – WESTMONT
Night one of the Westmont Pro Swim Series will feature a short distance session, consisting of the men’s and women’s 800 freestyles. The 800s will be swum as timed finals and will alternate between women and men by heat, starting with the fastest heat and ending with the slowest.
Katie Ledecky was originally scheduled to headline this session but had to pull out of the meet due to illness. The top two seeds in the women’s event will be Olympic medalists Leah Smith and Erica Sullivan. Both Smith and Sullivan are currently training with the Texas Longhorns and have entered this event with an 8:17.52 and 8:24.02, respectively. They will be joined by Turkish national teamer Deniz Ertan (8:24.94), Sierra Schmidt (8:27.54), Kristel Kobrich (8:32.58), and others.
In the men’s event, the reigning Olympic champion and American record holder Bobby Finke holds the top seed with a 7:39.36. He posted that time en route to a gold medal at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. He’ll be the favourite to win the fast heat of the men’s 800 freestyle tonight, but Charlie Clark (7:50.07), Marwan Elkamash (7:50.33), Yigit Aslan (7:51.20), and more will all be in the race as well.
Women’s 800 Freestyle
Top 8 (After Heat 2)
- Leah Smith – 8:28.23
- Beatriz Dizotti – 8:32.93
- Kristel Kobrich – 8:37.18
- Sierra Schmidt – 8:39.60
- Erica Sullivan – 8:40.23
- Ching Hwee Gan – 8:41.54
- Erin Gemmell – 8:42.13
- Caroline Pennington – 8:42.23
In the first and fastest heat of the women’s 800 freestyle, Leah Smith started off strong and established a lead for herself ahead of the rest of the field. She flipped at the 400 meter mark at a 4:12.68, which was more than 3 seconds quicker that Erica Sullivan who was #2 at the halfway mark.
In the second half, Leah Smith kept her lead and ultimately touched the wall with an 8:28.23 to take the gold medal. That time makes Smith the 11th-fastest woman in the world this season behind Anastassia Kirpitchnikova‘s 8:27.98.
Smith’s strong back half allowed her to win the heat by almost 10 seconds as Kristel Kobrich took second place in an 8:37.18. Kobrich holds the South American record in the short course version of this event at an 8:08.02 from back in 2009. She holds the Chilean national record in the long course 800 free at an 8:26.75, which she swam in 2013 at the World Championships. Kobrich is a long-time national teamer for Chile and has raced at the past five Olympic Games for the country.
Sierra Schmidt came in right behind Kobrich with an 8:39.60 to dip under 8:40 and get into the wall ahead of 4th-place finisher Erica Sullivan who hit an 8:40.23. That time for Schmidt was a bit more than 10 seconds slower than her entry time of 8:27.54 and her lifetime best of 8:27.13 from 2019. Sullivan was also well off her best time of 8:23.02, which she swam at the 2021 Olympic Trials in Omaha.
Erin Gemmell, Caroline Pennington, and Deniz Ertan had a close race for the 5th place position in the first heat of this meet and each touched in the 8:42 range. Chase Travis rounded out the top 8 in heat one with an 8:43.67.
In the second heat, the only woman to break into the top eight of the event was heat-winner Beatriz Dizotti who swam an 8:32.93 to surpass everyone in heat one except for Smith. Dizotti won her heat by nearly 10 seconds, out-swimming Ching Hwee Gan‘s 8:41.54. This time is a new best time for Dizotti whose former PB came in the opening split of her 1500 freestyle at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest. She split an 8:35.04 in that race to beat her entry time at 2022 Worlds of 8:40.10.
Men’s 800 Freestyle
- World Record: 7:32.12 – Lin Zhang (2008)
- American Record: 7:39.36 – Bobby Finke (2022)
- Pro Swim Series Record: 7:48.50 – Ahmed Hafnaoui (2023)
- US Open Record: 7:43.32 – Bobby Finke (2022)
Top 8 (After Heat 1)
- Bobby Finke – 7:53.96
- Charlie Clark – 7:57.97
- Tommy-Lee Camblong – 8:01.02
- Kieran Smith – 8:01.14
- Batuhan Filiz – 8:01.70
- Mert Kilavuz – 8:02.96
- Aryan Nehra – 8:03.15
- Zalan Sarkany – 8:04.08
American record-holder and Olympic champion Bobby Finke didn’t need to hit a best time to win the heat here, hitting a 7:53.96 to place first. Finke has cracked 7:50 five times in his career, peaking at the 7:39.36 American record he set last year to win World Championships gold. This time of 7:53.96 is right around the 7:54.07 he hit mid-season in December 2021 and the 7:54.02 prelims time he delivered at Olympic Trials in 2021.
Finke made his 800 freestyle season debut a few weeks ago at the Fort Lauderdale Pro Swim Series, hitting an 8:04.04, making this his first sub-8:00 in the 2022 – 2023 season. Finke got into the wall a few seconds ahead of his 2022 teammate Charlie Clark who swam the 800 and 1500 freestyles at the World Championships last year.
Clark hit a 7:51.59 at the World Championships to place 12th overall during prelims. He was a bit quicker a few months earlier than that, however, when he set his best time at US Trials in April 2022 with a 7:50.07.
French swimmer and Georgia Bulldog Tommy-Lee Camblong was #3 in heat one of the men’s 800 freestyle with an 8:01.02. Camblong has cracked 8 minutes several times throughout his career, including last year at the 2022 Pro Swim Series in San Antonio. His best time comes from 2019 when he hit a 7:53.59 at the 2019 World Junior Championships.
Turkish swimmers Batuhan Filiz and Mert Kilavuz took the 4th and 5th spots, respectively with their times of 8:01.70. Filiz won a silver medal last year at the 2022 World Junior Championships with a time of 7:55.61 and holds a PB of 7:55.57 from earlier in 2022. Kilavuz has also been under 8 minutes before, holding a lifetime best of 7:52.19 from 2021.
In heat two of the men’s 800 freestyle, Kieran Smith hit an 8:01.14 to replace Filiz as the 4th-fastest man in the field. Smith didn’t quite crack the 8-minute mark, which he did for the first and only time thus far in 2021 with a 7:59.27 at the San Antonio Pro Swim Series. Aryan Nehra also worked his way into the top eight from heat two, posting an 8:03.15.
