Budapest 2022: Mixed Medley Relay Analysis

2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• June 18-25, 2022 (pool swimming)
• Budapest, Hungary
• Duna Arena
• LCM (50-meter format)
• Full Aquatics Schedule
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• Live Results
• Day 4 Finals Heat Sheets

MIXED 400 MEDLEY RELAY – FINAL

• World Record: 3:37.58, Great Britain – 2021 Tokyo Olympics
• Championship Record: 3:38.56, United States – 2017 World Championships
• 2021 Olympic Champion: Great Britain, 3:37.58
• 2019 World Champion: Australia, 3:39.08

1. United States, 3:38.79
2. Australia, 3:41.34
3. Netherlands, 3:41.54
4. Great Britain, 3:41.65
5. Italy, 3:41.67
6. China, 3:43.55
7. Japan, 3:45.28
8. Germany, 3:46.64

In the finals of the mixed medley relay, United States dominated the rest of the field, winning the race in a time of 3:38.79 and being 2.55 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Australia. The victory was a redemption for the U.S., as last year at the Olympics, they finished fifth and failed to make the podium due to poor lineup decisions. Today, they seemed to have figured things out, going with a male-male-female-female lineup. And while that order is considered to be the ideal order of a mixed medley relay, it was the first time since 2015 that the U.S. has implemented it in the finals of this relay.

In this article, we take a look at the splits recorded from every swimmer in this relay.

Backstroke

The first part of this relay was a battle between Hunter Armstrong and newly minted world record holder Thomas Ceccon. And while both of them were slower than their respective times of 51.98 and 51.60 from the 100 back final, they had a substantial lead over the rest of the field with Armstrong just ahead of Ceccon by 0.12 seconds. Notably, Xu Jiayu recorded a split of 52.90, a whole 0.59 seconds faster than the 53.49 he swam to finish tenth in the 100 back semifinals. Out of the five men that lead off, four of them were under the 53-second barrier.

The fastest woman on backstroke was Kaylee McKeown, who put down time of 58.66. Since she withdrew the 100 back individually, this race was our first chance to see what her form was like in backstroke at this meet. The time was a bit underwhelming for McKeown, considering that her best time of 57.45 is over a second faster. In addition, had she recorded this time in the individual 100 back, she would have barely made the podium by 0.01 seconds- something uncharacteristic for a swimmer who is the defending Olympic champion and world record holder in the event.

Breaststroke

As expected, the majority of teams used male breaststrokers. There were two sub-58 splits in the field, which were recorded by Nic Fink and Nicolo Martinenghi. And while Martinenghi has gone faster than 57.93 in the past, Fink’s time makes him the sixth man in history to go sub-58 on a relay and the fourth-fastest man of all time on the breaststroke leg in a medley relay.

Fastest Performers Of All Time, Men’s 100 Breast Relay Splits:

1. Adam Peaty, Great Britain – 56.53 (2021)
2. Nicolo Martinenghi, Italy – 57.73 (2021)
3. Brenton Richard, Australia (2009)/Ilya Shymanovich, Belarus (2019) – 57.80
4. Nic Fink, United States  – 57.86 (2022)
5. Arno Kamminga, Netherlands – 57.89 (2021)
6. Yan Zibei, China – 57.96 (2020)

Anna Elendt was the fastest female breaststroker on this relay, recording an impressive split of 1:05.83 that was 0.15 seconds faster than her time of 1:05.98 that took silver in the 100 breast yesterday.

Butterfly

On the men’s side, Matt Temple, Naoki Mizunuma, James Guy, and Nyls Korstanje were all within 0.15 seconds of each other, with Temple being the fastest at 50.84. James Guy‘s 50.95 split was particularly impressive, as he had just swam in the finals of the 200 fly minutes before this race. For the women, 100 fly world champion Torri Huske was the fastest by over a second. And while Huske has a best flat start time of 55.64, she still seems to struggle over getting under 56 seconds on a relay, shown by the fact that she wasn’t able to do so on both the mixed and women’s medley relays in Tokyo. Zhang Yufei had a similar double to Guy, but her 200 fly semifinal was even closer to this race than Guy’s final was. Zhang’s fatigue from swimming two races in a matter of minutes really showed here, as she clocked a 57.74 split that was 1.33 seconds slower than her individual 100 fly time.

Freestyle

Marrit Steenbergen stepped up for the Netherlands on anchor to help her team secure bronze, clocking a time of 52.55 that was the fastest female free split in the field. The Dutch seem to have found their next freestyler star after the retirementes of Femeke Heemskerk and Ranomi Kromowidjojo, as Steenbergern has already been sub-53 multiple times off relay starts at this meet. Claire Curzan also recorded an impressive split of 52.62, faster than the 52.71 she swam on the 4×100 free relay.

The one woman that was slightly off her best was Australia’s Shayna Jack, who clocked a split of 52.92 that is slower than her flat start best time of 52.60. However, it was still fast enough to help the Aussies claim silver.

Rafael Miroslaw of Germany, the only male anchor in the race, split 48.34 but was too far behind to run down any of the women.