China & Japan DQ’d In Mixed Medley Heats; Singapore Earns National Record

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 mixed medley relay prelims on day 4 of the 2019 World Championships were rocky, with 4 teams disqualified by the time the heats were through.

Along with Mexico and Senegal, heavy hitters China and Japan saw their Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualification chances fade, at least here, with only the top 12 relays getting an automatic bid for next summer’s Games.

For Japan, the foursome of Natsumi Sakai, Yasuhiro Koseki, Naoki Mizunuma and Rika Omoto were on their way to potentially making the final, when a -.05 takeover was registered on the exchange of Mizuma on fly and Omoto on free. Splits thus far included 1:00.08 for Sakai, 59.50 for Koseki and 51.85 for Mizunuma.

As for China, the players were Li Guangyuan (53.78), Wang Lizhou, Yichun Wang and Zhu Menghui, although the DQ is not entirely clear on the results. This was a major miss for China, who could have front-loaded their relay tonight with 100m back gold medalist here Xu Jiayu and 100m breaststroke bronze medalist Yan Zibei.

Finishing 20th, Singapore’s squad of Quah Zheng Wen, Christie Chue, Jonathan Tan and Cherlyn Yeoh combined to clock a shiny new National Record in this event. Splits included 54.58 for Quah, 1:09.96 for Chue, 54.49 for Tana and 54.87 for Yeoh.

In addition to the aforementioned 12 auto-qualifiers for Tokyo, 4 additional relay teams can still qualify for Tokyo 2020 at other competitions through May of next year.