“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
Sign over the gates to Hell, as Dante described in the Inferno, or a warning to whatever teams are preparing to dive into the seven lanes which are not occupied by Australia’s women in the 4×100 free relay?
Right now, take your pick.
Cate Campbell hast been dominating in the 100 free over the past few years, but she didn’t even have the fastest split on Australia’s championship record team on the first night of swimming of the 2015 FINA Aquatics Championships.
That honor instead went to Cate’s sister Bronte, who cranked out a 51.77 on the third leg of the relay. The race was looking a little tight at the halfway point, with the Netherlands and the USA just over 0.3 seconds behind Australia, but Bronte timed her relay start perfectly, recording a reaction time of only 0.03, and had opened up the lead to over a body length before she hit the first wall.
Bronte’s split was unofficially the second-fastest of all-time. Who has the fastest, you ask?
Cate, of course. Talk about sibling rivalry.
It was bad enough to be the rest of the world when you had one Australian swimmer capable of splitting sub-52, as Cate demonstrated should could do when she anchored the medley relay in a time of 51.59 at last year’s Commonwealth Games.
But now, with Bronte’s breakout leg this evening, Australia now has two swimmers who have gone under 52. As far as we can tell, only threeother women have ever done that, textile or not: Britta Steffen, with a 51.99 in 2009, and Ranomi Kromowidjojo, with a 51.93 in 2012, and Femke Heemskerk, who just went 51.99 this evening for Netherland’s silver medal relay.
The upshot of all this is that Australia looks like it’ll easily be able to continue its dominance in this relay for the foreseeable future.
Last year, the Australian quartet of Bronte, Melanie Schlaneger, Emma McKeon, and Cate came out blazing, setting a new world record in the 400 free relay at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with a time of 3:30.98. That swim shattered the previous mark of 3:31.72, set by the Netherlands during the rubber suited 2009 World Championships.
Their swim today time, a 3:31.48, is the second fastest time of all-time, and broke the meet record, which was the former world record from 2009.
Here are the comparative splits from today’s swim and the previous course record:
Australia, 2015
Emily Seebohm – 53.92
Emma McKeon – 53.57
Bronte Cambell – 51.77
Cate Campbell – 52.22
Total – 3:31.48
Netherlands, 2009
Inge Dekker – 53.61
Ranomi Kromowidjojo – 52.30
Femke Heemskerk – 53.03
Marleen Veldhuis – 52.78
Total – 3:31.72
While we’ve seen time and time again where a country’s relay prospects can change very quickly, right now it doesn’t look like any other country in the world is going to be able to touch Australia anytime soon, thanks largely to unparalleled dominance of the Campbell sisters.
Most of the races from Kazan are available on dailymotion.com The commentary is in Italian, french, german etc but that is easily overlooked. Enjoy
Where is this being televised?
Any chance of popping a video up of the race?
In Sydney, finals start at midnight and the relay was at 2am.
Thanks Swimswam. Keep up the good work.
Your all amazing young woman .Proud to see you swim for yourselves ,Australia and the spirit which is so inspirational to all .
Australia will pop a 3:29 in Rio next year. They certainly have the ammo for it. They’ll have a team with #4 swimmer going 53 low, to #1 swimmer going 52 low – flat starts. Basically, an average of 52 high.
Unfortunately for the US, it seems we need better training/coaching at this distance. Franklin swam slower than she did 4 years ago. The relay itself was 2.3 seconds slower than 2 years ago. At this point, even with improvements on the US side, they’ll be hard pressed to break 3:32 next year, meaning Australia will likely lead us by 2.5 to 3 seconds or about 0.7s per swimmer. That’s straight up domination and it’s due to largely to lack… Read more »
A little proof-reading may be in order as you have Emma McKeon’s leg down as 52.57 instead of the 53.57 she actually swam. SHE can certainly deliver a better leg as she split 52.91 in their WR swim in Glasgow. Bronte has certainly sent out a clear message that the individual 100 should now be considered a “race in four” and that she is a very real contender not just the supporting cast.
Steenbergen’s performance is a very positive sign for the future but the lack of a quality 4th swimmer for NED is the key factor that currently sees them competing for the minor coin rather than the major prize. USA …… is still quite a long way off… Read more »
Thanks for the catch, fixed.