Early Speed Makes the Difference Despite Kharun’s 20.73 Fly (SC Worlds Day 2 Relay Analysis)

2024 Short Course World Championships

• December 10-15, 2024
• Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
• SCM (25m)
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Mixed 4×50 Medley Relay – Final

• World Record: 1:35.15 – United States (2022)
• World Championship Record: 1:35.15 – United States (2022)
• 2022 World Champion: United States – 1:35.15

Podium

1. Neutral Athlete B (M. Lifintsev, K. Prigoda, A. Surkova, D. Trofimova) – 1:35.36
2. Canada (K. Masse, F. Knox, I. Kharun, I. Wilm) – 1:35.94
3. USA (S. Casas, M. Andrew, R. Smith, K. Berkoff) – 1:36.20
4. Australia – 1:36.78
5. Italy – 1:36.80
6. Sweden – 1:37.05
7. Japan – 1:37.29
8. Netherlands – 1:37.41

Backstroke (Flat Start)

In any relay, early speed pays dividends, and the Neutral Athletes B team showed just that, loading their front half of the relay with their best swimmers (not that the back half are by any means slouches) and led from start to finish.

Miron Lifintsev, who earlier won the 100 back in a new World Junior Record, put his team in front with a commanding start. He hit the wall in 22.39, well ahead of Isaac Cooper and his 22.68, and both Shaine Casas and Lorenzo Mora, who were equal 3rd at 22.85.

Five of the eight relays opted to use male backstrokers and all of those relays had a commanding start, but Canadian Olympian and the 6th place finisher in the 100 back, which happened earlier in the session, Kylie Masse swam her nation’s back leg, splitting 25.87, which while first amongst the female backstrokers put Canada 3.48 seconds back behind the early leader

Breaststroke (Flying Start)

Building upon that early lead and playing to their strengths, the Neutral Athlete team used a male breaststroker. Earlier in the session, Prigoda posted the fastest time in the 100 prelims, recording a mark of 56.02. In the relay with a flying start an a reaction time of .14, Prigofad unleashed a 24.94 split, the only sub-25.00 split in the field.

All of the relays employed male breaststrokers, which may support the notion that female breaststrokers are at more of a disadvantage, or it could be just that each team played with their strengths.

The US, 3rd after 200 IM gold medalist Shaine Casas led them off turned to Michael Andrew. Andrew, who this morning failed to advance out of the 100 breaststroke prelims, threw down a respectable 25.29 split to bring the USA into second place, passing both the Italians and the Australians, both of whom struggled on the breaststroke leg, despite Simone Cersuolo and Joshua Yong, whose beat Andrew and made the semifinals of the 100 breaststroke.

Butterfly (Flying Start)

With the fastest first two legs, the Neutral Athlete Team was now leading by .81 over the USA and 4.07 over the Canadians. Had the USA opted to use Gretchen Walsh or even Kate Douglass, they may have had a chance to close the gap, but Arina Surkova, buoyed by the lead she had split 24.43, outpaced Alexandria Perkins, who had just beaten her in the individual 50 fly as well as Regan Smith, one of the few swimmers to have been under 56.00 in the 100 fly (LCM).

The difference between the Canadians and the Neutral Athletes B team would have seemed insurmountable, but one must remember the Canadians still had a male swimmer to use and Ilya Kharun, the 50 fly silver medalist. Kharun, with a reaction time of .1 produced a fly first 25 split of 9.30, faster than the two male freestylers, and surged home to bring the Canadians from 6th to 2nd with a time of 20.73.

Freestyle (Flying Start)

With the Canadians (Kharun) having cut the gap from over four seconds to just .37, the race for gold was still on. Daria Trofimova, who tied for first alternate in the 100 free semis earlier in the session, split 23.60, the third fastest amongst the women, but it more than enough as Ingrid Wilm, primarily known as a backstroker, couldn’t keep up with Kharun’s momentum and her 23.81 split saw the chance of gold slip from her hands. However, her time was fast enough to hold off the fast-charging Katharine Berkoff, who split 23.16, securing the bronze medal for the US and her second medal of the evening.

The neutral athlete team, with their winning time of 1:35.36, broke the existing European and national records of Russia, but they weren’t alone. While generally considered to be fielding a weaker team this year, the Australian quartet, which finished in 4th, set a new Oceanian record of 1:36.78, easily an improvement upon their 10th-place finish from 2022. The Japanese, too, set a new continental record, as their team posted a result of 1:37.29, surpassing China’s 5th place finishing time of 1:37.31 from 2022.