Video interview captured by swimswam reporter Colin Blair.
Men’s 4×200 freestyle relay – 2013 FINA Junior World Championships – as reported by swimswam editor-in-chief Braden Keith:
The final of this boys’ 800 free really, through 600 meters, was already easily in the class of “outstanding junior relays” from the top three teams of Australia, Great Britain, and the United States.
When the last legs hit the water, though, two of those relays went World Class, while the third left some scratching their heads.
Great Britain got a huge 1:46.39 anchor from James Guy, which blows away any swim he’s had in that race through European Juniors and Junior Worlds. Fortunately for him, his teammate Caleb Hughes (1:48.98) gave him a lead over the Australians on the 3rd leg, though, because even that spectacular swim was half-a-second shy of what Australia’s Mack Horton, the star of this meet, did. He split 1:45.84 on their anchor, but ran out of room.
Note: Horton’s split, even in the 200 not typically thought of as one of his primary individual events, Horton’s split was much, much faster than any of the swimmers split on the Australian preliminary 800 free relay at Worlds that didn’t even final.
The Brits took the victory (Matthew Johnson, Max Litchfield, Hughes, and Guy) in a new Championship Record of 7:15.36, with Australia 2nd in 7:15.82.
The Americans, meanwhile, took a significant lead into the final exchange, but Alex Katz (1:50.05) couldn’t hold onto that against those stellar anchors mentioned above. The Americans wound up 3rd in 7:17.67.
Note that the Americans left Andrew Seliskar off of the finals relay, despite him having the fastest prelims split among the Americans in 1:48.99; Though no one swimmer can take the fault for a relay’s performance, Katz was also on that prelims relay and was called up instead. There seems to be more going on there than meets the eye.
More than meets the eye? Like what?
It also depends on the budget , the number of swimmers sent & the priorities. Britain in this case used their top guys who were also at BCN .
If it was medals Australia would have brought in a BCN competitor also & shaved ( theoretically ) 3 secs off .
As it is this is a nice intra meet between James & Mack for the Common wealth Games next year. It should be exciting for all the Brit & Australia 800 relay guys as to whom can make their senior team next year.
I am not that knowledgeable about swimming, but to me, Junior competitions are not so much about the medals ( they are good, please don’t get me wrong), but more about ‘development’. As such, to me these comps are an opportunity to give talented swimmers the opportunity to experience different scenarios, so that some of the ‘mistakes’ we all saw in Barcelona are identified, worked on, and erradicated at Junior level. I might be barking up the wrong tree here, but is this a possibility as to the US team line up in that relay?