Day 6 Worlds Relay Analysis: Three Sub-1:44 Splits Highlight Men’s 4×200 Free Relay Battle

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With three swimmers blazing sub-1:44 splits and the podium separated by less than a quarter of a second, the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay final on Friday night turned out to be one of the most thrilling battles so far at the 2024 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

MEN’S 4×200 FREESTYLE RELAY — FINAL

• World Record: 6:58.55 — United States (2009)
• Championship Record: 6:58.55 — United States (2009)
• World Junior Record: 7:08.37 — United States (2019)
• 2023 World Champion: 6:59.08 — Great Britain

1. China (Ji, Wang, Pan, Zhang), 7:01.84
2. South Korea (Yang, Kim, Lee, Hwang), 7:01.94
3. United States (Hobson, Foster, Armstrong, Johnston), 7:02.08
4. Great Britain (Richards, M. Litchfield, McMillan, Scott), 7:05.09
5. Italy (Megli, Ragaini, Ciampi, di Cola), 7:07.00
6. Greece (Markos, Englezakis, Stamou, Vazaios), 7:09.10
7. Lithuania (Rapsys, Navikonis, Lukminas, Jazdauskas), 7:11.57
8. Spain (Castro, Dominguez, de Celis Montalban, Molla Yanes), 7:11.65

Hwang Sunwoo stormed home on South Korea’s anchor leg with a blistering 1:43.76 split — the fastest in the field — to pass the United States for silver, but the individual 200 free champion couldn’t quite catch Zhang Zhanshuo (1:45.80), who clinched the gold medal for China in a tight finish. It was an impressive comeback for the Koreans, who rallied back from last place after the first leg of the relay.

Meanwhile, the American quartet of Luke Hobson (1:45.26), Carson Foster (1:43.94), Hunter Armstrong (1:45.73), and David Johnston (1:47.15) was forced to settle for bronze after leading through the first three legs of the race — including by nearly three seconds at the midway point.

LEADOFF LEGS

University of Texas junior Luke Hobson had the fastest 200 free leadoff in the field for Team USA at 1:45.26 — identical to his bronze-medal-winning time from a few days ago. The 20-year-old American owns a lifetime best of 1:44.87 from last year’s World Championships, where he led off this relay with a time of 1:46.00 en route to the silver medal (7:00.02) behind Great Britain (6:59.08).

Great Britain’s Matthew Richards opted not to defend his world title in the 200 free this week, but he posted the second-fastest leadoff in the field at 1:46.22. The 21-year-old threw down a personal-best 1:44.30 to win the 200 free in Fukuoka last year. Richards only contested the 100 free individually in Doha, where he placed 4th (47.82) just .04 seconds off the podium.

After taking silver in the 200 free (1:45.05) individually behind Hwang (1:44.75), Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys ripped a 1:46.37 split to put his squad in 3rd place heading into the 2nd relay leg. He has been as fast as 1:44.38 back in 2019.

Ji Xinjie was within a second of his lifetime best at 1:46.45 on his leadoff to keep China within striking distance early.

2ND LEGS

Foster blasted the first of three sub-1:44 splits to extend the U.S. lead to almost three seconds at the halfway point of the race. His 1:43.94 was more than half a second faster than his 1:44.49 split from last year, and more than a second and a half faster than his best flat-start 200 free (1:45.57) from the 2022 U.S. International Team Trials.

Sitting in 8th place after the opening leg, Kim Woomin passed five swimmers on the second leg with his 1:44.93 split. Kim has been as fast as 1:46.06 in November without a swinging start.

Wang Haoyu split 1:45.69 to pass Britain’s Max Litchfield (1:46.89) and put China in podium position heading into the third leg. Wang’s lifetime best (flat start) sits at 1:47.45 from last March.

3RD LEGS

After starting the week by missing the 200 free semifinals with a 1:51.03 in prelims on Monday, Pan Zhanle concluded it by clocking a 1:43.90 split on China’s third leg. The newly-minted 100 free world record holder singlehandedly cut the Americans’ lead from 2.94 seconds to 1.11 seconds.

Backstroke specialist Hunter Armstrong stepped up in a big way to keep the U.S. out in front with a 1:45.73 — significantly faster than his best (flat-start) time of 1:53.26 from back in 2019. However, Lee Hojoon cut into the Americans’ advantage with a 1:45.47 split, setting the stage for Korean teammate Hwang to roar home on the anchor leg.

4TH LEGS

Hwang blazed the fastest 200 free relay split since 2022 (Tom Dean‘s 1:43.53) to rally South Korea past the U.S. on the anchor leg. His 1:43.76 split was more than three seconds faster than 22-year-old American David Johnston (1:47.15), whose best flat-start time is just 1:51.48 from U.S. Trials last summer.

But Hwang came up just a tenth of a second short in his bid to surpass Zhang (1:45.80), who did just enough to clinch a historic gold medal for China. It was the first-ever win in this event for the Chinese men.

Duncan Scott, 26, boasted the second-fastest anchor leg in the field at 1:45.59, but his British squad still finished 4th (7:05.09) a few seconds behind the U.S. (7:02.08). Both Greece’s Andreas Vazaios (1:46.69) and Lithuania’s Rokas Jazdauskas (1:49.21) secured Paris 2024 Olympic berths for their countries with their anchor legs here.

Sub-1:44 Splits:

• Hwang Sunwoo – 23.94/26.49/26.89/26.44 = 1:43.76
• Pan Zhanle – 23.67/26.49/27.44/26.30 = 1:43.90
• Carson Foster – 23.67/26.41/26.88/26.98 = 1:43.94

Notes

• Lithuania placed 7th in 7:11.57, just barely earning a Paris 2024 Olympic berth. That finals time tied would have tied Hungary (7:11.57 at the 2023 World Championships) for the 17th spot in the combined standings from the past two Worlds just outside the bubble (the top 16 advance to the Olympics this summer), but fortunately for Lithuania, it was even faster in prelims with a 7:09.97 that earned the country the No. 13 seed. After not swimming the 4×200 free relay at Worlds last year, Greece also qualified for the Paris Olympics with a 6th-place finish in 7:09.10.
• The fastest reaction time belonged to British veteran Max Litchfield on the second leg, when he left the blocks just .01 seconds after teammate Matthew Richards touched the wall. Kim Woomin was the next-fastest off the blocks with a reaction time of .10 on South Korea’s second leg.
• The three sub-1:44 splits in this race were more than the past two World Championships combined, where Tom Dean was the only man to break that barrier on both occasions (1:43.53 in 2022 and 1:43.84 in 2023). Dean did not race for Great Britain this time around.