Day 5 Relay Analysis: Li’s 1:54.59 Gives China Gold in 4×200 and Sets Up Nicely For Paris

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With smaller squads and several absent nations, the relays have been chockful of surprises and new faces, and the Women’s 4×200 Free Relay was no exception.

WOMEN’S 4×200 FREESTYLE RELAY – FINAL

• World Record: Australia – 7:37.50 (2023)
• Championship Record: Australia – 7:37.50 (2023)
• 2023 World Champion: Australia – 7:37.50

Final:

1. China (Ai, Gong, Li, Yang) – 7:47.26
2. Great Britain (Colbert, Wood, Hope, Harris) – 7:50.90
3. Australia (Throssell, Jack, Harkin, Melverton) – 7:51.41
4. Brazil – 7:52.71
5. New Zealand – 7:53.02
6. Canada – 7:55.71
7. Netherlands – 7:55.84
8. Hungary – 7:56.58

We knew going into the final that the event was going to be an unusual one. The USA failed to advance a team into the final, Australia, the reigning World Champs and World Record holders, qualified just 7th into the final, and New Zealand, riding a wave of strong freestyles, qualified into the final as the #2 seeds.

Leadoff legs  

Erika Fairweather, the 2024 silver medalist in the 200 and gold medalist in the 400, gave New Zealand the lead, splitting 1:56.37. While up on the field by half-a-second, the Kiwis needed her to be close to the 1:55.75 she swam in the semifinals of the individual 200.

Brianna Throssell, too, was off the 1:56.00 she posted to win bronze in the individual race, but that could be explained by the fact that the meet is already halfway over and Throssell has swum numerous times already.

Hungary’s Nikolett Padar, who scratched the individual 100 semifinals this evening, got the Hungarians off to a good start splitting 1:57.06, but like the two above her was a little slower than the 1:56.89 she swam to place 6th in the individual 200 final.

2nd Legs

Abbie Wood, whose sole individual event was the 200 IM, posted the fastest split from the second leg and gave Team GB a lead of nearly three-quarters of a second over the Australians. Wood’s time of 1:56.65 was actually .2 faster than her split from Fukuoka. Shayna Jack, who was a part of the World Record setting relay in Fukuoka, was considerably slower tonight, splitting just 1:57.61 compared to 1:55.63 from last year.

University of Michigan swimmer and Brazilian Olympian Stephanie Balduccini took over for recent new record holder Maria Costa and moved her team into third, but the team lacked the back end to hold on to the bronze.

Third Legs

Li Bingjie‘s 1:54.59 is going to get a lot of attention as it was the key leg that moved the Chinese up from 5th to 1st. While it was a flying start, the time was notably faster than the 1:57.13 she swam in the 200 free semifinals (a swim that occurred after her silver medal-winning performance in the 1500). Last summer, Li led off for her team, posting a time of 1:55.83 on her way to winning the bronze medal.

Marrit Steenbergen posted a speedy 1:54.89, a much faster swim than her individual 200 (1:57.30), and her relay split from 2023 (1:55.47). What hurts Steenbergen’s and the Dutch chances is that despite posting the 2nd fastest split of the entire field, the Dutch were in such a hole already that her antics only brought them up from 8th to 7th.

To note, Australian Abbey Harkin, nominally a breaststroker for Team Australia, swapped a 1:58.92 to keep her team in medal contention.

4th Legs

From Li’s split, China already had a lead of 1.42 over Team GB, but 16-year-old Yang Peiqi kept hammering away, splitting a speedy 1:56.18 to increase China’s lead over the Brits to 3.64. Great Britain, who was without Freya Anderson‘s 1:56.30 from Fukuoka, called upon Medi Harris, a backstroker, to anchor the team. Harris’s 1:58.40 was 4th fastest amongst the anchors but was enough for her to claim silver for her team.

Kiah Melverton tried her best to close the gap, but her 1:58.01 only halved the Brit’s lead at the 600 mark. Melverton earned a gold medal last summer via her 1:57.64 prelims swim.

Notes

• The fastest reaction time of the field belonged to Brazil’s Balduccini at a swift .08
• Brazil’s quartet of Costa, Balduccini, Rodrigues and Roncatto reset the national record, which was set eight years ago at the Rio Olympics.
• New Zealand also lowered their national record, after having done so this morning.