Douglass, Walsh qualify for semifinals in 200-meter IM

Virginia swimmers Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh will continue their journeys to find the podium at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics tonight. Both qualified for the semifinals in the 200-meter Individual Medley event with Douglass swimming a new personal best to qualify in the top spot. Walsh will go into tonight’s semifinals tied for third.

The two Hoos were in different heats, with Douglass going in Heat 2 and Walsh in the final and fourth heat. The 200-meter IM is 50 meters — one length of the pool — in each of butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke, and freestyle. It’s a challenging race, and future Cavalier Emma Weyant already brought home a silver medal in the 400-meter IM.

Douglass led at every turn in her heat, edging out Yu Yiting from China and the 400-meter IM gold medalist Yui Ohashi from Japan. Her time of 2:09.16 was the best of the day, with Katinka Hosszú finishing second with a time of 2:09.70. Hosszú finished first in Heat 4, with Walsh touching just behind her with a 2:09.94. Great Britain’s Abbie Wood swam the same time as Walsh as the winner of Heat 3.

Check out Douglass’s full race here:

There will be two semifinals tonight, with the first scheduled to start at 10:58pm on NBC. Walsh will swim the first semifinal, a field loaded with Hosszú and Ohashi. Douglass will follow in the second semi with Wood and Switzerland’s Maria Ugolkova. The second semifinal is slated for 11:05pm.

Although the field is stacked, there’s a good chance that either or both of the Wahoos could find the medal podium.

In other Virginia swimming action, Paige Madden finished 7th in the women’s 400-meter freestyle race. Australia’s Ariarne Titmus out-touched Katie Ledecky in a dramatic race that pitted two of the best swimmers in the world against each other. Madden isn’t finished yet as she will participate in the 4x200 relay later this week.