Montreal 2013: Day 2 sneak preview

Matt Cowdrey, Sarah Louise Rung and Juan Reyes hope to shine on the second day of the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships. 06 Aug 2013

A picture of a woman in the pool with her hand up

Norway’s Rung celebrates winning Paralympic gold medal after the final race in the Women’s 50m Butterfly - S5 at London Aquatic Centre

ⒸGetty Images

By IPC

After becoming the most successful male swimmer at the London 2012 Paralympic Games with eight medals, including five golds, can Matt Cowdrey follow that up with another spectacle of performances in Montreal?

The 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships will run from 12-18 August and will feature around 500 swimmers from nearly 60 countries. The evening session of the second day of action can be watched live at ParalympicSport.TV.

Men’s 50m freestyle S9

Outlook: After becoming the most successful male swimmer at the London 2012 Paralympic Games with eight medals, including five golds, can Matt Cowdrey follow that up with another spectacle of performances in Montreal? Australia’s most successful Paralympian in history will be the easy favourite in this event with the top qualifying time of 25.13. His top competition will come from Hungary’s Tamas Toth and Spain’s Jose Antonio Mari Alcaraz. And in a 50m race, it’s guaranteed you’ll have a sprint to the finish.

Classification: This class is for athletes with joint restrictions in one leg, double below-the-knee amputees, single-leg amputees or above-the-elbow impairments.

Women’s 100m breaststroke S4

Outlook: Norway’s One to Watch, Sarah Louise Rung, actually enters the event with the second-top qualifying time, just behind Ukraine’s Nataliia Prologaieva. The two are friends outside the pool, but will give each other stiff competition as soon as they dip into the water. The last time the pair raced against each other in this event, Prologaieva won gold at London 2012 in a world-record time of 1:43.99, leaving Rung to finish with the silver in 1:45.68.

Classification: The S4 class is for swimmers who can use their arms and have minimal weakness in their hands, but cannot use their trunk or legs. Athletes with amputations of three limbs also swim in this sport class.

Women’s 50m freestyle S11

Outlook: When you have China’s Guizhi Li, New Zealand’s Mary Fisher and Sweden’s Maja Reichard in the same race, it’s bound to be eventful. The three fastest qualifiers are expected to sprint to the finish in a tight battle for gold. Fisher comes in as one of the favourites after having a record-breaking season, and Montreal may just be the place where she breaks out of the shadows of her compatriot Sophie Pascoe.

Classification: Swimmers in the S11 class are visually impaired with a complete or nearly complete loss of sight. They compete with blackened goggles.

Men’s 50m backstroke S4

Outlook: This could be a battle between two Mexican stars, as both Gustavo Sanchez Martinez and Juan Reyes will line up in the event, alongside the Czech Republic’s Arnost Petracek and Russia’s Aleksei Lyzhikhin. Sanchez Martinez has recently hit the media spotlight at home in Mexico, and so will most likely enter the race as the fan favourite, though Reyes is the Paralympic champion in the event and Lyzhikhin the silver medallist.