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
The lineups for the preliminary heats of the mixed 4×100 free relay have been released. In this relay, 43 teams will be racing each other for eight different spots in the final.
One of the most notable names on this lineup is Bella Sims, who will be anchoring the United States’ relay which also consists of Matt King, Chris Guiliano, and Olivia Smoliga. Sims did not qualify to swim the 4×100 free relay as she finished seventh in the 100 free at Nationals, but she holds a personal best time of 53.75. She also swam really well on the 4×200 free relay, splitting 1:54.64, while names that finished ahead of her in the 100 free at Nationals (Torri Huske, Gretchen Walsh, and Maxine Parker) have been off their best.
King and Jack Alexy are the two fastest men’s 100 free relay performers for the United States at this meet, so there is a good chance that King will be retained for finals.
Australia, the heavy favorites for gold, will be going with Flynn Southam, Jack Cartwright, Madi Wilson, and Meg Harris. Wilson and Harris will likely be replaced by Mollie O’Callaghan and Shayna Jack in finals, while Kyle Chalmers will replace one of the men. Aside from Chalmers, Cartwright was the fastest performer on the men’s 4×100 free relay, leading off in 47.84.
Great Britain, another potential medal contender, will be going with Jacob Whittle, Tom Dean, Lucy Hope, and Freya Anderson. This means that British record holders Anna Hopkin and Matt Richards will likely be rested for finals. The decision to make Whittle lead off is one that makes sense, as he had an early takeoff that caused his team to get DQed from the prelims of the men’s 4×100 free relay.
Full Lineups
Heat One:
- Federal States of Micronesia (Adams, Limitiaco, Kihleng, Kihleng)
- Papa New Guiena (Noka, Tarere, Ai Tom, Vele)
- Nigera (Opute, Ebingha, Abeng, Nwandu)
- Mexico (Iga, Cabrera, Kovacs, Fonseca)
Heat Two:
- Aruba (Schreuders, Dirksz, Timmer, Farro)
- Bahrain (Alawi, Khaled, Lefahler, Binrajab)
- Antigua and Barbuda (Mitchell, Wuilliez, Mithcell, Liddie)
- Palau (Hosei, Sakurai, Milek, Hosei)
- Norther Mariana Islands (Aleksenko, Guerrero, Litulumar, Batallones)
- Maldives (ahmed, Imaan, Shiham, Latheef,)
- Cabo Verde (Pina, Lima, Pina, Pina)
- Bermuda (Parfit, Harvey, Moore, Harvey)
- Malawi (Gomes, Pinto Chang’anamuno, Moosa)
- Panama (Harper, Santos, Cermelli, Christianson)
Heat Three:
- Angola (Mascarenhas, Gordo, Freitas, Lima)
- Uganda (Mukalazi, Kabuye, Naluwoza, Namutebi)
- Bahamas (Taylor, Carey, Gibbs, Thompson)
- Suspended Member Federation (Maina Talib, Muteti, Brunlehner)
- Germany (Varjasi, Miroslaw, Schulze, Holt)
- Armenia (Barseghyan, Chakhoyan, Poghosyan, Manucharyan)
- Thailand (Kaewsriyong, Kanteemool, Kwanmuang, Srisaard)
- Slovakia (Dusa, Jablcnik, Potocka, Ivan)
- Samoa (Borg, Schuster, Brown, Frost)
- Guam (Hendrix, Lee, Bollinger, Poppe)
Heat Four:
- Japan (Gomi, Nakamura, Ikemoto, Jinno)
- Israel (Loktev, Cheruti, Gorbenko, Golovaty)
- China (Yang, Ji, Yang, Wu)
- Sween (Hanson, Seeliger, Hansson, Aastedt)
- Canada (Gaziev, Acevedo, Harvey, Ruck)
- Great Britain (Whittle, Dean, Hope, Anderson)
- Netherlands (Simons, Corbeau, van Wijik, van Nunen)
- New Zealand (Gray, Swift, Gasson, Edwards)
- Greece (Vaaios, Bilas, Drakou, Drasidou)
- Columbia (DNS)
Heat Five:
- Hong Kong (Lau, Ho, Cheng, Cheng)
- Korea (Ji, Yang, Hur, Jeong)
- Brazil (Santos, Soutza, Viera, Balduccini)
- France (Berg, Guth, Touati, Nowaczyk)
- Australia (Southam, Cartwirght, Wilson, Harris)
- United States (King, Guiliano, Smoliga, Sims)
- Italy (Frigo, Miressi, Cocconcelli, Morini)
- Espain (de Celis Montalban, Coll Marti, Weiler Sastre, Campabada Amezcua)
- Singapore (Tan, Lee, Quah, Quah)
- South Africa (Clayton, Canny, Schoeman, Meder)
She swam 54, the same as pure sprinter Gretchen Walsh did in 4×100 free lead off
I love Bella, a huge fan and am 100% behind #LetBellasprint, but I really do disagree with this move. There were several other females on team USA worthy of the option ahead of Bella. We know Gretchen was off her game. I guess they felt Torrie was, too. You’re saving Abby and Kate for this final, and smoliga was the other split…no Maxine? Alex Walsh?
Actually. I guess we ran thru our possible options. Ledecky wouldn’t make sense as she’s still got a race to go I think, and with Bella 2nd fastest 200, yeah, I guess I just talked myself into it had to be Bella…go Bella Swims!!!
Yeah it seems odd until you really start to think about it, then it kind of makes sense. I mean, they had a lot of options here. They had 3 seconds to play with, so they probably could’ve put Lilly King on the relay and still final’ed.
But her 54.05 split was better than Parker was on prelims of the women’s relay. So while it didn’t mean much, I think it was the right choice.
She was 7th in the 100 at trials. Douglass and Weitzel will be in the final, Huske and Walsh have doubles, Smoliga was in the prelims, and Parker was way off earlier in the week.
Huske didn’t have a double. But obviously her relays have been off.
50 fly? That should say it would have made for a double.
50 fly final was at night. This article is about the heats. Huske would not have had a double if she swam the relay heat instead of Sims.
i’m rooting for good ole team sween in heat 4
is that even Bella in the video? It doesn’t look like her
Dropping that left elbow
God I wish we had the technology to be obsessively and minutely critical back in my swimming days.
That’s from Tokyo 3 years ago
Good choice. Bella is swimming better than Huske, Walsh and Parker. I know Abbey has the 50 free today but her 100 was rough last night.
Interesting. I know in her interview after the 4 x 200 she thought her meet was over. As did I.
too bad they can’t rest king for finals. i’m assuming it’s due to ress and held having events still and lasco being off in his most recent event
Do we know what happened with Lasco in his 200 Back Semi?
I heard Meehan liked one of his Insta posts.
He really bunched his 100 turn, but probably just had an off swim as well.
he was already out of it by the 100 turn though