Pan Pacs Day 3 Heats Wrap

A STRANGE thing happened on Day 3 of the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Irvine, California this morning and it had nothing to do with the Netflix series.

In the fifth and final heat of the women’s 400m freestyle, Dolphin Lani Pallister (pictured) cruised to victory in a time of 4:05.22 – this was almost to be expected given Pallister’s golden run of form.

But beside her, Canada’s world record holder Summer McIntosh, despite looking fairly comfortable, was out-touched by China’s Fan Yaqi for second in the heat. Yaqi’s 4:08.36 over McIntosh’s 4:08.56 ended up being the final spot in the A final.

Two-time defending Pan Pac champion Katie Ledecky claimed the top seed for the final by posting a time of 4:03.48 while New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather clocked 4:04.50 to qualify second fastest for tonight’s final.

Open water Pan Pac champion and bronze medallist in the 1500m Moesha Johnson (4:07.75) also qualified for tonight’s 400m final.

In a moment of prophecy, or some might say destiny, a 14-year-old Pallister received an autograph from the GOAT of women’s distance swimming Ledecky that also said “dream big”.

And so Pallister will tonight.

“It’s going to be a loaded field … but I love racing. I have got the best out of myself this week and will look to do that again tonight against Katie (Ledecky), Erika (Fairweather) and all the girls in the final,” Pallister said.

“I feel like the 400m is the one I am still trying to figure out. I dropped 10 seconds last year in my 800m, a second and a half off my 200m, and the 400m is sitting in this weird little space at the moment.”

After a dominant 800m free win on the opening night, Sam Short raced composed through the 400m freestyle heats to qualify fastest in 3:44.34 and book Lane 4 for tonight’s final.

Short is the fastest man in the world this season after posting 3:40.67 at the Australian Swimming Trials in June.

World Junior Record holder Zhang Zhanshuo, from China, touched the wall in 3:45.17 to run down American Aaron Shackell to qualify second fastest.

But Short will have good mate Elijah Winnington with him tonight.

Short said: “Me and Elijah will be either side of Zhang tonight and it’s going to be hot. I only had six hours sleep on the back of last night’s racing so I will go home, have a feed and a nap.

“This will be harder to win than the 800m … Zhang is a better competitor than Bobby (Finke) at the moment, particularly at this distance and the form he has had at this meet.”

Knowing that teammate Ben Goedemans had gone 3:46.07 in the first heat, Winnington knew he had to be under that in the final heat to advance, and did just that clocking 3:45.48 to qualify fourth for the final.

Day 3 Finals: Pan Pacs
Dolphins racing from 12 noon AEST / 7pm local time.