2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- Competition Schedule
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Entry Lists
- Results
The women’s 4x200m free relay was set to be a battle between the Australians and the Americans and the ferocity of the leg-by-leg competition did not disappoint. The result led to the Australian combination of Ariarne Titmus, Madi Wilson, Brianna Throssell and Emma McKeon raging to the wall first in a gold medal-worthy time of 7:41.50 to clock a new World Record.
18-year-old Titmus led off the Aussies, with the teen already having won the 400m free here individually on night 1 in an upset over America’s Katie Ledecky. She also took silver in the 200m free here in a time of 1:54.66.
Tonight, the teen from Tasmania busted out the 200m free performance of her life to give Australia a sizeable lead over America, touching in 1:54.27 for a new Australian National Record in itself.
Next in line was Olympic finalist in the 100m backstroke Wilson, who was a late addition the relay when teammate Shayna Jack pulled out of these World Championships at the last minute, even after having traveled to staging camp. Jack’s absence is still a mystery, but Wilson was only focused on the pool in front of her, keeping Australia in the race with a solid 1:56.73 2nd leg.
Throssell, who was the 200m fly Olympic finalist now making strides in sprint free events, kept the Aussies in 2nd place with a split of 1:55.60. Throssell clocked an individual PB of 1:56.62 at this year’s Aussie World Trials, so the fact she was 1:55.60 with a .44 exchange means she fired off a monster swim tonight.
Throssell was also part of the Aussie women’s 4x100m freestyle relay that won gold here on night 1.
Another member of that 400 free relay was McKeon, the Griffith University star who took bronze in the 100m fly individually before withdrawing from the 200m free.
She bounced back with a 56.14 leg on the Aussies’ gold medal-winning mixed medley relay and finished here in a gold medal-clinching split of 1:54.90. That sub-1:55 scorcher enabled McKeon to surge ahead of America’s Katie McLoughlin, who split 1:55.36.
The Aussies’ final time of 7:41.50 overtook a long-standing World Record set by the Chinese team back at the 2009 World Championships, which means another supersuited record bites the dust. The Americans also logged a time tonight under that WR mark, taking silver in 7:41.87.
Splits for the top 2 teams tonight are compared as follows:
| Titmus | 1:54.27 | Manuel | 1:56.09 | |
| Wilson | 1:56.73 | Ledecky | 1:54.61 | |
| Throssell | 1:55.60 | Margalis | 1:55.81 | |
| McKeon | 1:54.90 | McLaughlin | 1:55.36 | |
| 7:41.50 WR | 7:41.87 |
Canada took the bronze in 7:44.35, a new National Record.
With 4×200 fr record gone, there are only two 2009 records left on the women side. One is 200 fr, the other is 200 fly. For 200 fr, the record is about 1:53. There are a few swimmers at 1:54 who might be able to do it. For 200 fly, the record is about 2:02. The closest swimmer is about 2:05. It will be very difficult to break this record. It could be the only 2009 record that will never be broken forever.
Wouldn’t the Aussies been about a second faster if Jack was able to swim? Seems like there’s still room for them to drop time.
Phenomenal race from Aussie gals! Great PB for Bree Throssel and Arnie lowering her PB yet again down from 1:54:35 set at trials in april. Imagine if Shayna Jack was in place of Madi Wilson- i reckon at olympics next year in tokyo, we’re gonna see sub 7:40 to take the gold in another WR.
Great day to see a suited WR go down.
Manuel & Ledecky are far from top. At Olympics it will be another story.
Manuel swam a PB… McKeon was far from top today and Jack is likely a second faster than Wilson, plus Titmus is on the up
Did you actually watch the race?
Manuel swam PB, and Ledecky ran down Maddie Wilson.
Ledecky seems to be in shape.
So this has to be the Aussies best championship ever right. Usually it’s just select members of their team doing well. Feel like everyone they have is doing great!
far from it. they won 13 gold to USA’s 10 in 2001 (thanks to Thorpe winning 6 of them himself). and in 2015 they would have topped the table if they had taken the mixed free seriously rather than let USA have it. but they should definitely keep the new selection process moving forward. Apart from Larkin who would have won 2 WC individual golds if he had replicated his trials times, most of Australia’s swimmers are swimming around their trials times or better
In my opinion, it is closely related to jetlag management: Fukuoka and Gwangju are more or less in the same meridian as Australia, whereas Rio, Budapest, London, Barcelona…
except Kazan was in Russia…
agreed there ….