Relay Analysis: Manaudou, Sjostrom Lead Energy Standard To Mixed Free Victory

2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE FINAL – DAY 2

• Saturday, November 21: 2:00PM – 4:00PM CET (8 AM  – 10 AM U.S. Eastern, 10 PM  – 12 AM Japan)
• Sunday, November 22: 6:00PM  – 8:00PM CET (12 PM – 2 PM U.S. Eastern, 2 AM  – 4 AM Monday J+1 Japan)
• Duna Arena – Budapest, Hungary
• Short Course Meters (SCM) format
• ISL Technical Handbook
• 2020 ISL Scoring Format
• 2020 ISL Prize Money and Bonuses
• How To Watch
• Teams: Energy Standard / Cali Condors / London Roar / LA Current
• Day 2 Start Lists
• Day 1 Full Results
• Omega Results

Despite losing their ISL championship title to the Cali Condors, Energy Standard did pick up their fourth relay win of the league final on the last day of competition in Budapest, edging the Condors in the mixed 4×100 freestyle.

Energy Standard (3:14.21) edged out Cali by half a second, led by the top male flying split in the field from Florent Manaudou (45.44) and the second-fastest female leg from Sarah Sjostrom (51.01).

World records (or American Records) are not officially recognized in this event, but it appears as though Energy Standard’s swim is the fastest ever.

Let’s dive into the splits:

Male Lead-offs

In what was already his fourth swim of the day, Caeleb Dressel put the Condors out to the early lead in 45.95, understandably well off his American Record swim in the individual event (45.08).

Evgeny Rylov also added for Energy Standard, about half a second slower than his PB of 46.09, which he equalled on the men’s 400 free relay on day one.

Male Flying Splits

Manaudou unleashed his fastest relay split of the season for Energy Standard on the second leg, going 45.44 for tops in the field. Cali’s Justin Ress was just a tick slower in 45.57, which maintained a half-second Condor lead at the 200m mark.

Kliment Kolesnikov had another sub-46 split on Energy Standard’s ‘B’ squad in 45.76, while Kristian Gkolomeev dropped a 45.51 from LA’s ‘B’ team. Gkolomeev’s swim briefly launched the Current into third, though they ultimately fell to seventh after a pair of 53s from their women.

Female Flying Splits

Sjostrom threw down a 51.01 split swimming third for Energy Standard, the second-fastest in the field, to put them in the lead over the Condors heading into the anchor. Pernille Blume also had her fastest split of the season by far on their ‘B’ team in 51.16, putting them a clear third.

Siobhan Haughey then closed the show for Energy Standard in 51.18, with Erika Brown putting up another strong split for Cali in 51.43. Brown had split 51.73 on day one’s medley relay, while Haughey set a new Asian Record leading off the free relay in 50.94.

The fastest split in the field went to London’s Freya Anderson, who has made sub-51 swims a common occurrence this season. Anderson anchored the Roar in 50.83, moving them up from seventh to fifth, and just missing running down Abbey Weitzeil and the LA Current for fourth.

Anderson’s fastest split this season came on Saturday, where she recorded a 50.44 for the second-fastest relay split ever — trailing only Cate Campbell‘s 50.38 from last season.

London’s ‘B’ team was disqualified after Maria Kameneva jumped early on the third leg.