2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- June 18-25, 2022 (pool swimming)
- Budapest, Hungary
- Duna Arena
- LCM (50-meter format)
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- Day 7 Finals Heat Sheets’
In the finals of the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay, the Australian team of Jack Cartwright, Kyle Chalmers, Madi Wilson, and Mollie O’Callaghan broke the world record in a time of 3:19.48. This came despite the team not having their best female freestylers from last year (Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell), which goes to show how strong the country is in the stroke. In this article, we take a look at the splits that swimmers produced on this relay.
Read more about Australia’s world record here.
Mens Leadoffs
Just like he did in the morning, Ryan Held got the United States off a strong start with a 47.93 leadoff, the only man under 48 seconds on the first leg. Canada’s Josh Liendo had an impressive 48.02 time as well, which came after having to swim both the 100 fly and 50 free beforehand. Jack Cartwright‘s 48.12 was the fastest time that he’s swam since 2018, and just 0.17 seconds off his best time of 47.97 from 2017. It was also faster than what Wiliam Yang and Zac Incerti went individually in the 100 free, showing that Australia made the right choice in picking him for this relay.
| Country | Swimmer | Time |
| United States | Ryan Held | 47.93 |
| Canada | Josh Liendo | 48.02 |
| Australia | Jack Cartwright | 48.12 |
| Great Britain | Tom Dean | 48.25 |
| Italy | Lorenzo Zazzeri | 48.69 |
| Brazil | Garbiel Santos | 48.73 |
| Netherlands | Stan Pijnenburg | 48.80 |
| China | Hong Jinquan | 48.88 |
Mens Rolling Splits
The Aussies gained the lead through a scorching 46.98 from Kyle Chalmers, who had the fastest male rolling split by 0.52 seconds. Although he hasn’t swam many races here at these World Championships, Chalmers has been a force on relays, having anchored the men’s 4×100 free relay in a 46.60 that pulled his team from fifth to second place. Canada’s Javier Acevedo had an impressive 47.96 split as well, considering that his flat start best time is a 49.12 and his fastest relay split before this meet was a 48.43.
| Country | Swimmer | Time |
| Australia | Kyle Chalmers | 46.98 |
| Italy | Alessandro Miressi | 47.50 |
| United States | Brooks Curry | 47.72 |
| Great Britain | Lewis Burras | 47.86 |
| Canada | Javier Acevedo | 47.96 |
| Brazil | Vinicius Assuncao | 48.03 |
| Netherlands | Jesse Puts | 48.29 |
| China | Wang Changhao | 48.86 |
Womens Rolling Splits
Mollie O’Callaghan had the fastest split out of all the women, swimming a 52.03 in typical O’Callaghan fashion. She opened in 25.11 before coming home in a blistering 26.92 to help the Aussies secure the world record. Her teammate, Madi Wilson, had an impressive 52.25 to rank fourth out of all the women swimming on this relay.
Notably, O’Callaghan and Wilson were the two women left off the Aussie finals squad that broke the women’s 4×100 free relay world record last year.
Charging on the final lap was Penny Oleksiak, who anchored in a 52.11 to help Canada overtake the United States for silver. Her split was the second-fastest out of all the women, just behind O’Callaghan. Another team-saving anchor leg was Marrit Steenbergen‘s as she threw down a 52.60 to bring the Dutch up from seventh to fifth place.
Coming after swimming the 50 fly and 50 free beforehand in the same session, Torri Huske had an impressive 52.60 split with a +0.00 reaction time.
| Country | Swimmer | Time |
| Australia | Mollie O’Callaghan | 52.03 |
| Canada | Penny Oleksiak | 52.11 |
| Australia | Madi Wilson | 52.25 |
| Canada | Kayla Sanchez | 52.52 |
| Netherlands | Marrit Steenbergen | 52.57 |
| United States | Torri Huske | 52.60 |
| United States | Claire Curzan | 52.84 |
| Great Britain | Freya Anderson | 53.06 |
| Great Britain | Anna Hopkin | 53.27 |
| Brazil | Giovanna Diamante | 53.98 |
| Brazil | Stephanie Balduccini | 54.04 |
| Italy | Silvia di Pietro | 54.19 |
| Netherlands | Tessa Giele | 54.58 |
| China | Ai Yanhan | 54.58 |
| China | Lao Lihui | 54.60 |
| Italy | Chiara Tarantino | 55.45 |
So looking at it now it seems fairly obvious.
Men’s leadoff: USA fastest, CAN 2nd, Aus 3rd
Men’s split: Aus fastest, USA 3rd, CAN 5th
Women’s splits: Aus fastest and 3rd, CAN 2nd and 4th, USA 6th and 7th
Mollie O’Callaghan was only ranked #57 in Swimswam’s Top 100 For 2022. So far, she already won 3 golds and 2 silver at Worlds, with medley relay still coming up, and posted fastest 100 free of the year.
https://swimswam.com/swimswams-top-100-for-2022-womens-75-51/
Just a thought experiment, which country will win in a 8×100 mixed freestyle relay? US has the depth on the men’s side, Australia has it on the women’s
My gut feeling:
Only using swimmers in Budapest: Toss up.
Using the actual best team: Aus.
US men won the relay by 1.46s but with an admittedly slowish Dressel leadoff (but not THAT much slower than usual)
Aus women beat USA in their relay by 1.63s.
But replacing Harris’s 53.00 split with McKeon’s 51.35 and Jack’s 52.65 with C1’s 51 high (she has been as fast as 50 high but obviously that’s not realistic) it becomes a blowout.
The race was all but over after Jack’s 48.1 split, Kyle doing his usual demolition job, Madi finally getting her relay times down and Mollie likewise, Awesome job!🇦🇺🦘🇦🇺
I was excited as soon as I saw how close Cartwright was but they still had to get the job done on the other legs.
The question now is – will Cartwright b continue on to Birmingham after his relay heroics or will the selectors stick to their guns ? Not a bad way to end his season if this is Jack’s last swim unless he gets picked for heats of medley relay
I don’t know if they can put him on the team and I doubt they’d be allowed to kick someone off. But if someone withdraws I assume he’d be in the conversation to be added very quickly.
Really, a WR is a pretty great for his season. He doesn’t need CGs
We’ve got to send some coaches to Australia to try and figure out how they develop all of these amazing female sprint freestylers.
Pick me. Pick me.
Or Canada 😉
Your sentence about Acevedo is wrong. He also split a 47.97 in the men’s free relay. But 48.43 was his fastest split before this meet.
ofc nbc sports will post “michael andrew pb takes silver” but wont post this race and how the ausies broke the record. Rowdy’s biased commentary is such a joke and seemed almost disappointed that the aussies won with the WR smh
What do you expect? He’s the announcer for the US ofc he’s biased. NBC usually posts if USA medals so I’m not sure abt that
You mean Rowdy is something of a homer? Next thing you know, you’ll try to tell me that he gets a little bit excitable when commenting.
And imagine a U.S. network focusing their online coverage on U.S. swimmers. The scandal!
But ffs, it was a WR. Pathetic.
He was even a homer during ISL.
They literally did. And as it turned out, the American commentator who is commentating for the American sports station is mainly highlighting Americans
Also the US should’ve rested Held in the heats and then lead off Curry with Held second. Mollie pushed the fronthalf a bit more causing a bit slower backhalf. Curzan really overperformed compared to her flat starts in every relay she swam.
Being an experimental meet, I don’t mind Mollie pushing the front end a bit and see how she goes, because it’s part of her development as she gets older… she needs to get out faster if she wants to get down to low 52s or even down to 51s by Paris .. huske and Curzan may have developed sprint endurance by then and not die in the second 50 so Mollie needs to learn to go out fast with them in the first 50 I feel
Huske and Curzan really stepped up in the relays. They’re going to bring others with them.