2023 World Championships: Night 7 Relay Analysis

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• July 23 to 30, 2023
• Fukuoka, Japan
• Marine Messe Fukuoka
• LCM (50m)
• WORLD CHAMPS WATCH PARTY – DAILY
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Entry Book
• Live Results (Omega)
• Day 1 Prelims Live Recap | Day 1 Finals Live Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Live Recap | Day 2 Finals Live Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Live Recap | Day 3 Finals Live Recap
• Day 4 Prelims Live Recap | Day 4 Finals Live Recap
• Day 5 Prelims Live Recap | Day 5 Finals Live Recap
• Day 6 Prelims Live Recap | Day 6 Finals Live Recap
• Day 7 Prelims Live Recap | Day 7 Finals Live Recap

MIXED 4×100 FREESTYLE RELAY — Finals

• World Record: 3:19.38 — Australia (2022)
• Championship Record: 3:19.38 — Australia (2022)
• World Junior Record: 3:25.92 — United States (2019)
• 2022 Winning Time: 3:19.38
• 2022 Top 8 Time: 3:27.20

Top 8:

1. Australia (Cartwright, Chalmers, Jack, O’Callaghan) — 3:18.83 (WORLD RECORD)
2. United States (Alexy, King, Weitzeil, Douglass) — 3:20.82
3. Great Britain (Richards, Scott, Hopkin, Anderson) — 3:21.68
4. Canada (Liendo, Gaziev, MacNeil, Harvey)— 3:23.82
5. Italy (Miressi, Ceccon, Cocconcelli, Morini)  — 3:24.53
6. Brazil (Santon, Souza, Vieira, Balduccicini) — 3:25.21
7. Japan (Gomi, Nakamura, Ikemoto, Jinno)— 3:26.96
8. Germany (Varjasi, Miroslaw, Schulze, Holt) — 3:27.18

Well, that went perfectly to script.

The Australians, the winners of the individual 100 for the men, the winners of the individual 100 for the women, the winners of the men’s 4×100 free relay, and the winners of the women’s 4×100 free relay, absolutely owned this field, as expected and broke the world record by .6.

As shown in the article covering their world record, the Australians made up ground on the world record and surpassed it by the strength of their women. Jack Cartwright was .02 faster than his split in the previous world record but was well off the 47.84 he split in the men’s relay at the beginning of the week. Kyle Chalmers, while having the fastest flying split of anyone in the field at 47.25, was slower than the 46.98 he swam in the relay last year in Budapest as well as being slower than the 46.56 hammer he swam to lead the Aussie men to gold in the 4×100 free relay.

Leave it up to the women to get it done. The splits on the former world record were 52.25 by Madison Wilson and 52.03 by Mollie O’Callaghan. Tonight they swapped in Shayna Jack, who swam 51.73 (her fourth sub-52 split of the week), and O’Callaghan, who has been on a massive improvement curve, dropped a 51.71 split.

Speaking about the relay, Jack said, “I really just wanted to set up tonight for the rest of the guys and put together a great race.That’s exactly what we did. We all put together great one-hundreds to become the best in the world.”

O’Callaghan added, “It’s amazing, this is Shayna’s third world record. To break it again with these guys, last year I was with Jack, Kyle and Madi Wilson, and just to do it again is amazing and phenomenal”.

Fastest Opening Splits (Flat Start)

1. Jack Alexy (USA) – 47.68
2. Matthew Richards (GBR) – 47.83
3. Alessandro Miressi (ITA) – 47.97
4. Jack Cartwright (AUS) – 48.14
5. Guilherme Santos (BRA) – 48.32
6. Josh Liendo (CAN) – 48.65
7. Peter Varjasi (GER) – 49.06
8. Tomonobu Gomi – 49.58

While discussion about the American gold medal tally will continue long after the meet, one of the biggest positives to come out of the meet for Team USA is the emergence of Jack Alexy. Alexy made the most of an 8th-place finish in the semifinals of 100 free and turned it into a silver medal-winning performance of 47.31. While his split here was a little slower than that time, he did touch first and get a lead for the American team in a time that equals his second fastest ever, which is even more impressive as he already swam to a silver medal in the 50 earlier in the evening.

Alessandro Miressi had a slight redemption swim here. Miressi failed to break 48 in either of his prelims or semifinals in the individual 100, so a 47.97 must come as some relief, but he also split 47.54 in the 4×100 relay, so maybe not.

Fastest Male Splits (Rolling Start)

1. Kyle Chalmers (AUS) – 47.25
2. Duncan Scott (GBR) – 47.46
3. Ruslan Gaziev (CAN) – 47.58
4. Matt King (USA) – 47.78
5. Thomas Ceccon (ITA) – 47.93
6. Felipe Souza (BRA) – 48.31
7. Katsumi Nakamura (JPN) – 48.60
8. Rafael Miroslaw (GER) – 48.73

Despite having the fastest rolling start time, as mentioned above, Chalmers was relatively slow (compared to his other swims) here. SwimSwam predicted that Great Britain would use Thomas Dean, as he has looked better in the freestyle events this week, but they went with Duncan Scott, and it seemed to pay off as the combination of Matt Richards and Scott actually gave the Brits the lead at the halfway point.

Having a great meet but going unnoticed is the Canadian Ruslan Gaziev. The Ohio State Buckeye set a personal best of 48.38, leading off the Canadian men’s 4×100 free relay in the prelims. In the finals of that event, he split 47.30, swimming 2nd (the 3rd fastest of all the swimmers). In the mixed medley, he split 47.66 and 47.54, making him have four splits under 48 as well as a new personal best.

Fastest Female Splits

1. Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS) – 51.71
2. Shayna Jack (AUS) – 51.73
3. Kate Douglass (USA) – 52.42
4. Abbey Weitzeil (USA) – 52.94
5. Freya Anderson (GBR) – 53.09
6. Anna Hopkin (GBR) – 53.30
7. Maggie MacNeil (CAN) – 53.59
8. Nagisa Ikemoto (JPN) – 53.67
9. Sofia Morini (ITA) – 53.79
10. Mary-Sophie Harvey (CAN) – 54.00
11. Stephanie Balduccini (BRA) – 54.11
12. Ana Carolina Vieira (BRA) – 54.47
13. Nele Schulze (GER) – 54.65
14. Nina Holt (JPN) – 54.74
15. Constanza Concconcelli (ITA) – 54.84
16. Yume Jinno (JPN) – 55.11

Coincidentally, the fastest seven female splits follow the order of finish. The fastest two splits belong to the Australians, the next two to the USA, numbers five and six, the Brits, and number seven belongs to Canadian Maggie MacNeil.

The Aussies women did exactly as was expected. Despite not having the lead at the 200, Jack and O’Callaghan put on a clinic of consistency and swiftly moved ahead of the Brits and Americans.

Kate Douglass and Abbey Weitzeil did what was needed to secure the silver medal. Neither swam as fast as they did on the mixed medley relay, where  Douglass split 51.79  and Weitzeil, in prelims, swam an anchor leg of 52.40.

Like Gaziev for the men, Nagisa Ikemoto for the women has been having a good but unnoticed meet. The Japanese freestyler, who has a personal best of 54.31, split 53.67 in the finals tonight, 53.79 in the prelims, and had two sub-54 splits in Japan’s women’s 4×100 free relay. Notably, she was faster than Rikako Ikee’s splits of 53.95 and 53.91 from the mixed medley relay.