Huske’s 51.88 and Yang’s 51.96 Anchors, lead USA and China Under OLD WR (Day 8 Relay Analysis)

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MIXED 4×100 MEDLEY RELAY – FINAL

• World Record: 3:37.58 – Great Britain (2021)
• Olympic Record: 3:37.58 – Great Britain (2021)
• 2021 Winning Time: 3:37.58 – Great Britain
• 2021 Time to Win Bronze: 3:38.95

1. United States (Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske) – 3:37.43
2. China (Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang, Zhang Yufei, Yang Junxuan) – 3:37.55
3. Australia (Kaylee McKeown, Joshua Yong, Matthew Temple, Mollie O’Callaghan) – 3:38.76
4. France (Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, Leon Marchand, Marie Wattel, Beryl Gastaldello) – 3:40.96
5. Canada (Kylie Massie, Finlay Knox, Josh Liendo, Maggie MacNeil) – 3:41.41
6. Netherlands (Kira Toussaint, Caspar Corbeau, Nyls Korstanje, Marrit Steenbergen) – 3:43.12
7. Great Britain (Kathleen Dawson, James Wilby, Duncan Scott, Anna Hopkin) – 3:44.31
8. Japan (Riku Matsuyama, Taku Taniguchi, Mizuki Hirai, Rikako Ikee) – 3:45.17

Holy Smokes!!!

WHAT A RACE

WHAT A RACE

We’ll have breakdown of the world record performance and of some of the other national records, but with two nations under the former world record, A the pool must be fast in come capacity and B. there are bound to be some fast splits.

Backstroke Leg

Both Ryan Murphy and Xu Jiayu got their nations out to fast leads. Xu led at the 50, flipping in 24.93 to Murphy’s 24.98, but it was the American who got his revenge on the Chinese swimmer, who finished ahead of Murphy in the individual final winning the silver. Both were faster than they were in the final with Murphy touching first in 52.08 to Xu’s 52.13.  Yohann Ndoye-Brouard was little less than half a second off his PB from the prelims (52.48) but still got the French out to a strong start.

Of the female backstrokers, Kaylee McKeown gave her team the lead, pulling out another sub-58 performance. After claiming bronze in the 200 IM, the Australian swam 57.90 (slower than her individual gold medal performance of 57.33) and while in 5th, she led all the female backstrokers and was less than three seconds behind Japan’s backstroker.

Breaststroke Leg

After a rather sleepy 100 breaststroke that saw no male swimmer break 59.00 in the individual final, the relay splits were more exciting. Missing out on the medals in the 100, Qin Haiyang showed that he was at least back near the top of his games, splitting a speedy 57.82, the fastest in the field by .47. The Olympic co-silver medalist, American Nic Fink was in tight battle with Qin. He dove in .05 ahead and the pair’s first 50 was even at 26.84, with the Chinese swimmer only gaining on the last 50 opening up a lead of .42.

Leon Marchand, in his only performance that did not earn a medal, kept the French on contention with a 58.66 and kept the French in 3rd, but lost some ground on Joshua Yong. The Australia who made the stiff Australian Qualification standard by just .01 was the only Australian swimmer to advance into the semifinals of the 100 breast, In the prelims of the men’s medley relay he went 58.99 and thus earned a spot on the relay and rewarded the coaches’ decision with a speedy 58.43.

Butterfly Leg

One quarter of the relays went with a female backstroker and thus had their male butterflies pull themselves though the field. Silver medalist in the 100 fly, Josh Liendo pulled the Canada’s up from 6th to 5th with the fastest fly split of the field 50.08. However, it was Matt Temple‘s 50.42 that paid big dividends. The Australian was 7th in the individual event in 51.10 but his split moved up the Aussies from 5th to 3rd passing both the French and Japanese teams.

Gretchen Walsh had a big fly split of 55.18, and gave the American’s the lead over the Chinese. The Americans were back by .42 but Walsh’s first 50 was .46 faster than Zhang Yufei‘s and by the end of her 100 the Americans were up by just .04.

Freestyle Leg

With .04 separating the top two teams and with the Australian’s a second back but with Mollie O’Callaghan diving in, it looked to be a three way race into the finish. However, Tori Huske and Yang proved to more than up to the task as the pair joined the sub-52 club. Huske had a lead of .05 at the start and out split China’s Yang Junxuan over the first to 50, 24.58 to 24.71 and the American had a lead of .18. Yang would not give up and closed the gap on Huske to come within .12. Huske with her split of 51.88 got her hand on the wall first stopping the clock in 3:37.43, a new World Record. Yang’s 51.96 was also fast enough to get the Chinese team under the old WR, stopping the clock in 3:37.55.

O’Callaghan’s 52.01 was still a strong split but not enough to close the gap on the early leaders, but still fastest enough to have the Australians record a new Oceanean record of 3:38.76. While just the 7th fastest split, Beryl Gastaldello‘s 53.06 was enough to keep the French team in 4th place and while 2.2 seconds back of the bronze, their time of 3:40.96 smashes their national record from the prelims and France becomes the 7th fastest nation in the event.