Relay Analysis: All Four Winning Clubs Go Under Existing World Record

2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – FINAL

• Saturday, November 21: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM CET (8 AM – 10 AM U.S. Eastern, 10 PM – 12 AM Japan)
• Sunday, November 22: 6:00 PM-8:00 PM CET (12 PM-2 PM U.S. Eastern, 2 AM-4 AM Monday J+1 Japan)
• Duna Arena – Budapest, Hungary
• Short Course Meters (SCM) format
• ISL Technical Handbook
• 2020 ISL Scoring Format
• 2020 ISL Prize Money and Bonuses
• How To Watch
• Teams: Energy Standard / Cali Condors / London Roar / LA Current
• Day 1 Start Lists
• Omega Results

The opening day of the 2020 ISL Grand Final was incredibly fast. Multiple individual world records fell, but the relays took things up a notch — every winning relay swam the fastest time in history. The only one that will officially count as a world record was the Cali Condor women’s effort in the 400 medley, since that was the only team made up of four athletes from the same country (USA).

Along with the fastest relays in history, we also saw some of the fastest splits, with Tom Shields dropping a 48.04 on fly and Lilly King unloading a 1:02.40 on breast.

Let’s dive into the splits:

Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay

Lead-offs

Ho-hum, another Asian Record for Siobhan Haughey.

Haughey has been seriously lights out this season, and kept the momentum rolling here by setting another Continental Record leading off for Energy Standard in 50.94. That launched her club to a half-second lead from the hop, and made her the third-fastest swimmer in history.

Freya Anderson, who hasn’t led off a ton for London this season, clocked 51.43 for the third time inside the bubble — tying her best time. Olivia Smoliga hit a PB for Cali in 51.65, while Beryl Gastaldello was about a second off her best for LA in 52.17.

Flying Splits

Energy Standard and the LA Current were relatively equal over the final three legs, both getting three swimmers sub-52, as Haughey’s lead-off was ultimately the difference-maker.

The field’s fastest split ended up going to London’s Anna Hopkin, who dropped a 51.28 on the anchor leg. Abbey Weitzeil essentially matched her for LA, splitting 51.35, as the Current held off the Roar for second.

Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay

Lead-offs

World record watch was in full effect for Caeleb Dressel here after he lowered the all-time marks in back-to-back swims in the 100 fly and 50 free, but he had to settle for an American Record in his third swim in a little over an hour. His time of 45.18 lowered his 45.20 mark set in the semi-finals, leaving him .24 shy of the world record.

That put the Condors almost a full second clear of their biggest challengers, Energy Standard, who had Evgeny Rylov tie his best time on the money in 46.09.

Flying Splits

Kliment Kolesnikov has been consistently dropping sub-46 relay splits over the latter half of the season, and did so again here with his fastest yet in 45.25. That put Energy Standard in the lead, and then Chad Le Clos followed with his fastest-ever in 45.40 to extend it.

Justin Ress (45.42) had a strong swim for the Condors, making some inroads on Energy’s Florent Manaudou (46.04), but it wasn’t enough to run down the Frenchman.

Mikhail Vekovishchev, Kristian Gkolomeev and Apostolos Christou joined the party by going under 46 seconds as well.

Women’s 400 Medley Relay

Backstroke Lead-offs

Breaststroke Splits

Butterfly Splits

Freestyle Splits

Smoliga followed up her 100 free best time leading off the free relay with her fastest 100 back of the season for Cali on the medley relay, touching in 55.60 to fall just .13 outside of her American Record from 2018. That got the Condors off to a great start, giving them over a half-second buffer on London, who had Kira Toussaint go 56.16 (off her season-best of 55.68).

Cali ended up beating London by six-tenths at the end, so Smoliga outdoing Toussaint was their biggest key to victory.

Lilly King rattled off the fastest split in history on breaststroke, clocking 1:02.40 to go under Katie Meili‘s 1:02.88 from 2015. King’s previous fastest relay leg came in Match 10 (1:03.03).

That swim was followed by Kelsi Dahlia‘s 54.79 on fly, the second-fastest ever behind only Dana Vollmer (54.37), and then Erika Brown anchored them home in 51.73 to set the world record in 3:44.52. The previous record was held by the U.S. team from the 2015 Duel in the Pool, who went 3:45.20 (with Dahlia swimming fly). That relay was also when Meili swam her 1:02.88 breast leg.

Madeline Banic (54.85) and Marie Wattel (54.97) also produced standout sub-55 splits on butterfly, while Freya Anderson blasted one of the fastest in history on freestyle. According to USA Swimming’s database, Anderson’s 50.44 free leg is second only to Cate Campbell‘s 50.38 from the Budapest stop of the 2019 ISL season.

Men’s 400 Medley Relay

Backstroke Lead-offs

Breaststroke Splits

Butterfly Splits

Freestyle Splits

Kliment Kolesnikov smashed the 100 backstroke world record leading off for Energy Standard, blasting a time of 48.58, which set them up well en route to the fastest time in history. Ryan Murphy also hit his fastest time of the season leading off for LA in 49.36.

Adam Peaty (55.36) edged Ilya Shymanovich (55.38) on breast, though he was off his 54.84 from the semis, to briefly pull London into second.

Tom Shields dropped the fastest fly leg ever, under his 2015 mark of 48.07 in 48.04, while Caeleb Dressel (48.18) and Chad Le Clos (48.53) also had elite swims.

Justin Ress had the top anchor in 45.70, but couldn’t quite rundown Maxime Rooney as the LA Current claimed second place.

Florent Manaudou brought Energy Standard home in 45.79 to give the club a final time of 3:18.28, almost a full second under the official world record of 3:19.16 set in 2009.