2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00* am ET
- *The final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET
- Live Results (Omega)
The U.S. women smashed the American Record in the 800 free relay on day 5 in Hangzhou, winning the silver medal in a time of 7:35.30 to erase their previous mark of 7:38.42 from the 2010 Championships in Dubai.
They trailed early after Leah Smith led them off in 1:55.85, and then Mallory Comerford (1:53.00) and Melanie Margalis (1:53.59) clawed their way back into the race with China and Australia before giving way to Tennessee junior Erika Brown on the anchor leg.
Brown, who earned her spot on the finals relay by virtue of her 1:55.32 split in the prelims, dove in trailing China’s Wang Jianjiahe by nine-tenths of a second and went on the attack. She cut the lead in half with an opening 50 of 25.71, and though Wang ultimately pulled away, Brown never tired and ended up with the 3rd fastest split (with a takeover) in the entire field in 1:52.86. She did overtake the Australians, who were seven-tenths up heading into the anchor leg, to solidify the silver medal.
The old American Record belonged to the team comprised of Katie Hoff, Dagny Knutson, Missy Franklin and Dana Vollmer. Check out a comparison of the splits between the two teams below:
| USA, 2010 SC Worlds | USA, 2018 SC Worlds |
| Hoff – 1:53.37 | Smith – 1:55.85 |
| Knutson – 1:56.15 | Comerford – 1:53.00 |
| Franklin – 1:55.30 | Margalis – 1:53.59 |
| Vollmer – 1:53.60 | Brown – 1:52.86 |
| 7:38.42 | 7:35.30 |
In winning gold, China broke the Asian Record which was also set at those 2010 Championships, as did the bronze medal winning Australians with their Oceanian and Australian Record. Russia set a National Record as well in 4th, breaking their old mark from 2016. Ariarne Titmus‘ lead-off leg for Australia was the fastest split in the entire field (1:52.22).
Anyone have video of this race?
How can a swimmer to split 1:52.86 in SC and not being able to break 2:02 in LC?
Was this morning the first time Erika Brown ever swam a 200 scm free?
No, she was part of the World Cup junior crew in 2013 – she swam a 2:01.46 in Tokyo that year.
Such big names on the 2010 record holder team. And there are no 200 free specialists of 200 free on the current team. And such a big drop in time. Impressive. The only explanation I may propose that nobody actually cared about SC championships 8 years ago and Franklin was just 15 years old.
Way to go Erika! Powered by the 🍊T!
I’ll welcome new additions to the 4×200 relay. Both the male & female iterations of this relay need fresh blood come 2019 and 2020.
“Brown never tired”
I’d like to see the response from Brown to that.
A great swim!