Men’s 4×200 Free Relay Finals: Detti in For Italy, Pieroni/Haas Join USA

2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

The men’s 4×200 relay line-ups are officially released as a high-stakes final looms around the corner. The 2-time defending champs, Great Britain, will have to fend off top 4 prelims seeds Italy, Russia, USA, and Australia to continue their winning streak.

Top 8 Relay Line-Ups:

  1. Great Britain: (Scott, Jarvis, Dean, Guy)
  2. China: (Ji, Wang, Xu, Sun)
  3. USA: (Seliskar, Pieroni, Apple, Haas)
  4. Italy: (Megli, Detti, Ballo, di Cola)
  5. Russia: (Dovgalyuk, Vekovischev, Kransykh, Malyutin)
  6. Australia: (Lewis, Chalmers, Graham, Horton)
  7. Brazil: (Melo, Scheffer, de Lucca, Correia)
  8. Germany: (Zellmann, Miroslaw, Heidtmann, Wierling)

Great Britain

The British have tossed in freestyle pros Duncan Scott and James Guy alongside Calum Jarvis and Tom Dean for a lethal quartet out of lane one to defend their world title. In prelims, Dean lead off with a 1:47.34 while Jarvis split a 1:45.94. In the 200 free final, Scott tied for the bronze medal with a 1:45.63 while Guy is a 1:45-capable swimmer as well.

USA

Zach Apple and Andrew Seliskar swam 1:45-mids in the prelims, earning them a second relay swim and showing their true relay potential. Replacing Jack Conger and Jack LeVant are 100/200 free specialists Blake Pieroni and Townley Haas. While neither Seliskar or Haas advanced into the 200 free final, both have proved they are capable of splitting sub-1:46. Pieroni, alongside Apple, have become newly-minted American relay assets as they aided the USA to gold in the 4×100 free relay.

Australia

The Aussies have kept the two fastest 1:46 prelims swimmers, Alexander Graham and Mack Horton, for the relay final. The remaining spots went to 200 free finalist Clyde Lewis, who went 1:45.78 in the final, and sprinter Kyle Chalmers. The Aussies will be in a tight race for a medal as two other relays are right on their tail.

Italy

For the Italians, distance stud Gabriele Detti will join the relay for the final. In prelims, the remaining members of Filippo Megli, Stefano Ballo, and Stefano di Cola were all within the 1:45-1:46 range. With the addition of Detti, the Italians could be major medal threats.

Russia

Russia will have a tight race with the Italians as their prelims swimmers of Mikhail Vekovischev, Mikhail Dovgalyuk, and Aleksandr Kransykh were also in the 1:45-1:46 split range. Martin Malyutin will be joining the Russians in the final and could be able to replace Ivan Girev‘s 1:47.01 split from prelims to challenge the rest of the field.

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Lpman
4 years ago

I do not agree with this American line up. Needs Dressel

Param Parikh
4 years ago

USA made a mistake not swapping seliskar for Dressel

YaYeeter
Reply to  Param Parikh
4 years ago

Nah. He led off the relay in 1:45 so I think it’s reasonable to put him. Also, Caeleb has the 100 fly and 50 free semis today.

Brit in Canada
4 years ago

Great Britain 7.01
Duncan Scott 1.45.5
Calum Jarvis 1.45.5
Thomas Dean 1.46
James Guy 1.44

anon
4 years ago

why is Australia putting Horton on the anchor leg? Horton has swum a lot of awful 200m relay splits (incl 1:48s when he has a 1:45 flat start)

anon
Reply to  anon
4 years ago

happy to be proven wrong!

About Nick Pecoraro

Nick Pecoraro

Nick has had the passion for swimming since his first dive in the water in middle school, immediately falling for breaststroke. Nick had expanded to IM events in his late teens, helping foster a short, but memorable NCAA Div III swim experience at Calvin University. While working on his B.A. …

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