Prigoda Splits 55.15 100 BR To Help Neutral Athletes B Break 4×100 Medley WR (Relay Analysis)

2024 SC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

• December 10-15, 2024
• Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
• SCM (25m)
• Meet Central
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• Pick’em
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• Live Results
• Prelims Live Recap: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6
• Finals Live Recap: Day 1  | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6

The 2024 Short Course World Championships ended appropriately–with another world record. This time, it was the Neutral Athletes ‘B’ relay of Miron Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Andrei Minakov, and Egor Kornev who accomplished the feat, breaking the men’s 4×100 medley relay world record held jointly by the Australian and American teams from the 2022 Short Course World Championships.

Backstroke (Flat Start)

Lifinstev won the 50 and 100 backstroke this week in Budapest (both in world junior record time), but he had the third fastest backstroke lead-off as Shaine Casas and Kacper Stokowski out-swam him to get the relays started. Casas, the 200 IM world champion, clocked a 48.92 and was the lone swimmer to break 49 seconds with a time that would’ve won bronze in the individual event.

The actual 100 backstroke bronze medalist, Stokowski, shaved six-hundredths off his Polish record from the event final, clocking a 49.10 to put Poland–the top qualifier–in second. Lifintsev swam 49.31, touching .21 seconds behind Stokowski.

Breaststroke (Flying Start)

Prigoda won silver in all three breaststroke distances at these championships. He went to work on the breaststroke leg, splitting a field-best 55.15 to move the Neutral Athletes ‘B’ into first place, ahead of Italy and the United States. He was the fastest in the final by a second, as Italy’s Ludovico Viberti turned in a 56.15. His swim moved the Italians from fourth into medal position at second.

Michael Andrew struggled on the breaststroke leg, putting up a 57.03 for the seventh-best split in the field. The United States was still in a podium position at the halfway point in the race but had gone from first to third, 1.49 seconds behind the Neutral Athletes.

Joshua Yong and Jan Kalusowski provided the first of two identical relay splits in this final. The two swam 56.91 for Australia and Poland, respectively.

Butterfly (Flying Start)

Dare Rose had a tough swim in the 100 butterfly final, adding time and finishing eighth. But he rallied for the medley relay final, splitting a field-best 48.55 to close the gap to the Neutral Athletes ‘B’ and Italy with only the freestyle leg remaining.

100 butterfly bronze medalist Matthew Temple was right behind him with a 48.60, and 200 butterfly champion Ilya Kharun–who notably missed the 100 fly final–was third with a 48.66. Interestingly, there were no changes in the field during the butterfly leg; though some teams, like the U.S. and Australia, moved closer to the opponents they trailed, they maintained their respective positions at the final exchange.

Though Minakov jammed a couple of his turns, his 48.80 was enough to keep the Neutral Athletes ‘B’ team in first place.

Freestyle (Flying Start)

France was missing the depth it needed to get involved in the medal conversation for this final, but Maxime Grousset put together a blistering 44.51 for the fastest freestyle split in the field, which pulled the French team from eighth into seventh overall.

100 freestyle champion Jack Alexy wasn’t far off Grousset’s pace. He split 44.53, two-hundredths slower, as he tried to track down Egor Kornev and Alessandro Miressi. He succeeded in tracking down Miressi but could not catch Kornev. Kornev and Miressi both split 45.42, but the Neutral Athletes ‘B’ had given Kornev enough runway that Alexy was unable to catch him despite splitting .89 seconds faster.

Kornev hit the wall for a final time of 3:18.68, lowering the world record by three-tenths.