2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Provisional Entry List
- Entries Book
- Meet Schedule
- Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00 am ET
- S. Live Stream (Finals – First Three Days)
- S. Live Stream (Prelims, Finals Last Day)
- FINA TV Livestream (All Sessions)
- Live Results (Omega)
The American quartet of Caeleb Dressel, Blake Pieroni, Michael Chadwick and Ryan Held came together to win the men’s 400 free relay at the Short Course World Championships in a new world record time of 3:03.03, breaking the previous mark of 3:03.30 set by the U.S. at the 2009 Duel in the Pool. That team was made up of Nathan Adrian, Matt Grevers, Garrett Weber-Gale and Michael Phelps.
Dressel led them off in 45.66, breaking Held’s American Record* of 45.82 set leading off the prelim team, and then Pieroni (45.75), Chadwick (45.86) and Held (45.76) all held up their end of the bargain as they narrowly edged out the Russians who were also under the old world record in 3:03.11. All four Americans were well under what the American Record had stood at before Held broke it this morning (46.25).
*Editor’s Note: Nathan Adrian swam a 45.08 in December of 2009 at the Duel in the Pool, one of the world’s last meets where the now-outlawed rubber suits were allowed. USA Swimming, however, had already barred their use earlier that year. This means that while American swims in rubber suits at Duel in the Pool could break World Records, they were not eligible for American Records.
Check out a split comparison of the new and old world records below:
| USA, 2009 Duel in the Pool | USA, 2018 SC Worlds |
| Adrian – 45.08 | Dressel – 45.66 |
| Grevers – 44.68 | Pieroni – 45.75 |
| Weber-Gale – 47.43 | Chadwick – 45.86 |
| Phelps – 46.11 | Held – 45.76 |
| 3:03.30 | 3:03.03 |
Dressel, Pieroni, Chadwick and Held are all recently removed from their collegiate careers in the NCAA where they raced short course yards, so it’s not a surprise to see them find instant success in SCM. All-time, Dressel is 1st, Chadwick 2nd, Held 3rd and Pieroni 6th among Americans in the yards version of the 100 freestyle.
Anyone know if there was other US 4x100m free relay where the lead swimmer has the fastest split of the 4 at a major meet?
Regardless of how soft the AR of 100m Free SCM records or the competition, the team has the 4th – 7th fastest split of the entire field, and CD’s lead off is the fastest among the 4.
Why did the Russian lead off wear a cap when he had 3 inches of moppy shag dangling off the bottom of his dome, like jellyfish tentacles? Was he merely giving us the visual equivalent of a Troy drop-taper?
That Grevers split though!!! Oh my….
Adrian’s been putting in work for a while now.
11 years going back to his 2008 Olympic experience. That’s quite the career he’s been consistently five the whole time
Their consistency is great amongst their splits, but I really expected faster. If they can be this fast in December, next summer is going to be jaw dropping fast! Plus, it was really cool seeing these former NCAA rivals teamed TOGETHER on a short course relay. They are only beginning to scratch there surface of what they can do together as a team.
Adrian led off in 45.08 in 2009 but Dressel has the AR?
How come Adrian’s 45.08 leadoff in 2009 was not an American record?
Added a note above explaining, but basically USA Swimming had already outlawed rubber suits, even though FINA had not. So USA Swimming won’t recognize swims from the 2009 Duel in the Pool.
Thank you
Grevers split in the relay is ffffast
He’s always been a good 100 free relay split. He has a particularly fast 2009 going 47.6 in the long course relay at worlds.
On the other hand, GWG was < fast. Prob slower than his Beijing time.