Kyle Chalmers Scratches 200 Free to Focus on Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay

2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

On the final day of the 2022 Short Course World Championships, 100 freestyle champion Kyle Chalmers scratched the 200 free to focus on the men’s 4×100 medley relay at the end of the last prelims session in Melbourne, Australia.

It marks the first scratch of the week for the 24-year-old Australian sprint star. Chalmers has already achieved his main goal of the meet: adding a short-course 100 free title to his impressive career resume. He’s seeking to add a seventh medal to his haul tonight.

Yesterday, Chalmers took bronze swimming the freestyle anchor on Australian men’s 4×50 medley relay team behind the United States and new world record holder Italy.

His 100 free victory earlier this week came in a Championship-record time of 45.16.

Without Chalmers in the 200 free prelims, Great Britain’s Tom Dean led the way with a 1:40.98 while reigning world champion Hwang Sunwoo snuck into tonight’s final as the eighth seed. Olympic finalist Kieran Smith missed the final as the ninth qualifier just a tenth of a second behind Sunwoo.

MEN’S 200 FREE – PRELIMS

  • World Record: 1:39.37 – Paul Biedermann (GER), 2009
  • World Junior Record: 1:40.65 – Matt Sates (RSA), 2021
  • Championship Record: 1:40.95 – Danas Rapsys (LTU), 2018
  • 2021 Champion: 1:41.60, Hwang Sunwoo (KOR)

Top 8:

  1. Tom Dean (GBR) – 1:40.98
  2. Katsuhiro Matsumoto (JPN) – 1:41.29
  3. Maxime Grousset (FRA) – 1:41.79
  4. Drew Kibler (USA) – 1:41.88
  5. Danas Rapsys (LTU) – 1:42.21
  6. David Popovici (ROU) – 1:42.31
  7. Tommy Neill (AUS) – 1:42.38
  8. Hwang Sunwoo (KOR) – 1:42.54

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Meathead
1 year ago

Australians put relays first and individuals second. Opposite w American’s

Verram
Reply to  Meathead
1 year ago

I think Americans just know how to win medals swimming both .. Aussies are a little more fragile it seems

Troyy
Reply to  Meathead
1 year ago

It’s actually rare for an Australian to scratch an individual in favour of a relay.

commonwombat
Reply to  Troyy
1 year ago

Agree fully. This meet with:

  • all the extra 4X50 relays (leading to some sessions with double relay duties)
  • less than full strength teams

is frankly an outlier. GBR, whilst scratching a lot of relays at this meet, were notable in Tokyo by withdrawing key swimmers from individual events to prioritise certain relays. AUS has no real previous history in recent times of doing so.

Andrew
Reply to  Meathead
1 year ago

Or maybe Chalmers swimming the 200 does more harm than good when it’s clearly an off event for him? Lol

Jay Ryan
Reply to  Andrew
1 year ago

Well, he split 1:40.3 on the AUS relay, so it is not THAT foreign to Chalmers.

eliemsy
Reply to  Andrew
1 year ago

He just had the fastest relay split in history in this ‘off’ event.

About Riley Overend

Riley is an associate editor interested in the stories taking place outside of the pool just as much as the drama between the lane lines. A 2019 graduate of Boston College, he arrived at SwimSwam in April of 2022 after three years as a sports reporter and sports editor at newspapers …

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