2023 World Championships: Night 1 Relay Analysis

by Riley Overend 34

July 23rd, 2023 International, News

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

The first night of relays got off to a hot start with the Australians sweeping the 4×100 freestyle relays, highlighted by a world record from the women’s quartet of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Meg Harris, and Emma McKeon. Kyle Chalmers led the men back from 3rd at the final turn with a monster 46.56 split — his second-fastest ever — to help them claim their first world title in 12 years.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the numbers behind an electric evening session of relays.

After Jack blazed the top time in the world this season with her 52.28 leadoff in prelims, O’Callaghan (52.08) and Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom (52.24) were both faster on Sunday night. O’Callaghan dropped four-tenths of a second off her previous best from last month’s Australian Trials while Sjostrom was about half a second off her world record of 51.71 from the 2017 World Championships.

2022-2023 LCM Women 100 Free

2Sarah
Sjostrom
SWE52.2407/23
3Shayna
Jack
AUS52.2807/23
4Siobhan
Haughey
HGK52.4907/28
5Emma
McKeon
AUS52.5206/17
View Top 26»

Jack delivered the fastest rolling split in the field at 51.69, with 23-year-old Dutch standout Marrit Steenbergen (51.84) and Aussie teammate McKeon (51.90) joining her under 52 seconds.

Kate Douglass was the fastest American at 52.28, just .01 seconds quicker than the slowest swinging split on the Aussie relay (Meg Harris, 52.29).

Fastest Women’s 4×100 Free Relay Flat Starts

  1. Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS) – 52.08
  2. Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) – 52.24
  3. Cheng Yujie (CHN) – 53.39
  4. Anna Hopkin (GBR) – 53.67
  5. Gretchen Walsh (USA) – 54.06
  6. Summer McIntosh (CAN) – 54.99
  7. Kim Busch (NED) – 55.05
  8. Rikako Ikee (JPN) – 55.09

Fastest Women’s 4×100 Free Relay Rolling Starts

  1. Shayna Jack (AUS) – 51.69
  2. Marrit Steenbergen (NED) – 51.84
  3. Emma McKeon (AUS) – 51.90
  4. Kate Douglass (USA) – 52.28
  5. Meg Harris (AUS) – 52.29
  6. Freya Anderson (GBR) – 52.51
  7. Wu Qingfeng (CHN) – 52.64
  8. Abbey Weitzeil (USA) – 52.71
  9. Zhang Yufei (CHN) – 52.84
  10. Olivia Smoliga (USA) – 52.88
  11. Maggie MacNeil (CAN) – 53.07
  12. Michelle Coleman (SWE) – 53.11
  13. Tie: Yang Junxuan (CHN) – 53.53 / Lucy Hope (GBR) – 53.53
  14. Nagisa Ikemoto (JPN) – 53.62
  15. Taylor Ruck (CAN) – 53.99
  16. Louise Hansson (SWE) – 54.11
  17. Sam van Nunen (NED) – 54.13
  18. Abbie Wood (GBR) – 54.19
  19. Milou van Wijk (NED) – 54.39
  20. Mary-Sophie Harvey (CAN) – 54.57
  21. Rio Shirai (JPN) – 54.64
  22. Sara Juvenik (SWE) – 54.71
  23. Yume Jinno (JPN) – 55.26

Chalmers’ 46.56 stole the headlines — and rightfully so, as it was his second-fastest ever behind his 46.44 from the Tokyo 2021 Olympics — but there were a couple other impressive sub-47 second splits as well.

At 20 years old, Brazil’s Gui Caribe clocked a 46.76 to vault himself into the medal conversation for the individual men’s 100 free race later this week. China’s Wang Haoyu, just 17 years old, threw down a 46.97 split to nearly catch American anchor Matt King (47.32) for the final spot on the podium.

Alessandro Miressi posted a very promising performance for the Italians after only going 48.61 at April’s Italian Championships. The 24-year-old registered the fastest leadoff split in the field at 47.54, within a tenth of his Italian record (47.45) from the 2021 European Championships.

The top performer in the world heading into this meet, 18-year-old Pan Zhanle, logged the second-fastest flat start split in the field (47.67), .45 seconds slower than his Asian record from May.

Fastest Flat Starts

  1. Alessandro Miressi (ITA) – 47.54
  2. Pan Zhanle (CHN) – 47.67
  3. Jack Cartwright (AUS) – 47.84
  4. Ryan Held (USA) – 48.16
  5. Josh Liendo (CAN) – 48.17
  6. Tomer Frankel (ISR) – 48.43
  7. Sergio de Celis Montalban (ESP) – 48.77
  8. Marcelo Chierighini (BRA) – 48.84

Fastest Men’s 4×100 Free Relay Rolling Starts

  1. Kyle Chalmers (AUS) – 46.56
  2. Gui Caribe (BRA) – 46.76
  3. Wang Haoyu (CHN) – 46.97
  4. Thomas Ceccon (ITA) – 47.03
  5. Ruslan Gaziev (CAN) – 47.30
  6. Matt King (USA) – 47.32
  7. Jack Alexy (USA) – 47.56
  8. Chris Giuliano (USA) – 47.77
  9. Manuel Frigo (ITA) – 47.79
  10. Tie: Juner Chen (CHN) – 47.85 / Flynn Southam (AUS) – 47.85 / Jack Alexy (USA) – 47.85
  11. Javier Acevedo (CAN) – 47.88
  12. Kai Taylor (AUS) – 47.91
  13. Lorenzo Zazzeri (ITA) – 48.13
  14. Felipe Ribeiro de Souza (BRA) – 48.40
  15. Denis Loktev (ISR) – 48.46
  16. Luis Dominguez Calonge (ESP) – 48.47
  17. Cesar Castro Valle (ESP) – 48.54
  18. Gal Cohen Groumi (ISR) – 48.57
  19. Finlay Knox (CAN) – 48.70
  20. Mario Molla Yanes (ESP – 48.86
  21. Wang Changhao (CHN) – 48.87
  22. Ron Polonsky (ISR) – 49.07

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Joshua Liendo-Edwards-Smith
1 year ago

Jack Alexy is listed twice: Once as 47.56 and once as 47.85

Southerly Buster
1 year ago

Cate Campbell will need to be at her Tokyo Olympics level of performance (splits 52.11, 52.24) if she wants to force her way into the relay final top 4 in Paris. Otherwise she will find herself being a relay prelims only swimmer.

Dan_tm
1 year ago

The depth in Australian women’s sprinting is ridiculous!
The old guard is quickly getting replaced by the new.

See below best times (+age) since 2021.

NEW
MOC 19 52.08
Jack 24 52.28
Harris 21 52.92
Titmus 22 53.68

3.30.96

OLD
Cate 31 52.43
Emma 29 51.96
Bronte 29 53.01
Maddie 29 52.76

3.30.16

Troyy
Reply to  Dan_tm
1 year ago

Titmus and Harris might be able to better their PBs right now.

frug
1 year ago

I just realized that Meg Harris had the 5th fastest split in the field but only the 4th fastest on her team (standup and take a bow Sarah Sjoestroem for being the only person to outsplit an Aussie).

Noah
Reply to  frug
1 year ago

Are you blind

anon
Reply to  frug
1 year ago

kate douglass

Fraser Thorpe
Reply to  anon
1 year ago

And Steenbergen

Last edited 1 year ago by Fraser Thorpe
frug
Reply to  anon
1 year ago

Damn… misread the results. Thought Douglass was .01 slower not faster.

Last edited 1 year ago by frug
Ceccon - Kamminga - Milak - Popovici
1 year ago

China is rebuilding nicely.

They will be a serious force in Paris.

Meow
1 year ago

Is there a list of fastest relay splits of all time handy anywhere?

Sub13
Reply to  Meow
1 year ago

Yes

http://nuotomondiale.altervista.org/

One of the options on the table is splits for each event

Last edited 1 year ago by Sub13
jeff
1 year ago

that is going to be one nasty 4×200 relay

VFL
1 year ago

Gui is that man!!

About Riley Overend

Riley is an associate editor interested in the stories taking place outside of the pool just as much as the drama between the lane lines. A 2019 graduate of Boston College, he arrived at SwimSwam in April of 2022 after three years as a sports reporter and sports editor at newspapers …

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