Relay Analysis: Weitzeil, Anderson Throw Down 51.0 Free Splits On Day 1

2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – MATCH 5

• Friday, October 30th: 3-5pm CET/9-11am U.S. Central
• Saturday, October 30th: 12-2pm CET/6-8am U.S. Central
• 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
• Omega Results
• Teams: London Roar/DC Trident/LA Current/Tokyo Frog Kings

The opening day of the International Swimming League’s fifth match elicited some incredibly fast relay splits across the board. This included a pair of 51.0 female 100 free legs from Abbey Weitzeil and Freya Anderson, and two sub-46 male legs from Duncan Scott and Maxime Rooney.

Below, we’ll take a deep dive into all of the relay splits from the first session.

Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay

Lead-offs

Anna Hopkin really set the tone for the London Roar on the lead-off leg of the women’s 400 free relay, narrowly missing her personal best time (51.90) in 52.08 to give the club a lead it would never relinquish. Anastasia Gorbenko also had a strong swim for the Current, who were close behind the whole way, also coming close to her best time of 52.36 in 52.59.

Flying Splits

Four 51-second flying splits really standouts from this race, as we’ve seen other matches where this relay had zero. Weitzeil, fresh off an American Record in the 50 free last weekend, had a sensational split in 51.03, doing everything she could for LA to run down the Roar.

Ultimately, Marie Wattel was able to hold her off with a scintillating 51.77 of her own, while Anderson (51.52) and Andi Murez (51.69) had a similar dual swimming the second leg.

All four of the 51-second splitters produced their fastest-ever swims during the session, and three of them did so in this race. Wattel had been 51.78, Weitzeil had been 51.57 (in 2014, and was 51.66 last match), and Murez had previously gone 51.92. Anderson was just off her best of 51.35, but would go on to eclipsing it in the medley relay.

Catie Deloof helped give Tokyo a clear third place with a 52.02 swimming second, and Linnea Mack‘s 52.34 helped get DC past LA’s ‘B’ squad.

Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay

Lead-off Legs

Zach Apple was on form once again in giving the DC Trident the early lead in 46.22, while Maxime Rooney and Marco Ferreira were also just off what they had done in previous matches to put both LA Current teams in good position off the hop.

Flying Splits

Three of the four top splits with a takeover led LA to the victory by over a second in the end, with Tom Shields leading the pack in 46.44. The Current still sat second to DC after that swim, but Kristian Gkolomeev (46.59) put them out in front and then Dylan Carter (46.51) finished things off.

The London Roar had three splits in the 46.5-46.7 range to put them a comfortable second, and Apostolos Christou (46.90) helped get LA’s ‘B’ squad ahead of DC.

The Trident ‘A’ team had a strong second split from Jacob Pebley (46.74), but could’ve used Ian Finnerty (47.02 on the ‘B’ relay) in the place of either Matheus Santana or Robert Howard.

Women’s 400 Medley Relay

Backstroke Lead-off

Breaststroke Splits

Butterfly Splits

Freestyle Splits

Looking at the relay as a whole, the London Roar were dominant as they had the fastest split on all four strokes (after LA was disqualified), not to mention they had the top-two legs for both breast and free.

Anderson put an exclamation mark on the victory with a blazing 51.04 anchor leg — just .01 off of what Weitzeil did earlier in the free relay. (Tomorrow’s 100 free should be exciting).

According to USA Swimming’s database, 51.03 ties Weitzeil for the 15th fastest split ever (and sixth-fastest performer), while Anderson’s 51.04 is tied for 17th (and tied for seventh-fastest performer).

Weitzeil was in the race, but her Current ‘A’ squad got DQed for an early takeoff from Gorbenko on breaststroke, so we don’t know what her split was.

Suzuka Hasegawa (56.00) and Catie Deloof (51.87) gave Tokyo a strong back half to claim second, while Anna Hopkin joined the sub-52 party by anchoring London’s ‘B’ team in 51.71 for third.

Men’s 400 Medley Relay

Backstroke Lead-offs

Breaststroke Splits

Butterfly Splits

Freestyle Splits

There were standout splits on all four strokes in the men’s medley.

From the winning team, Tom Shields proved once again just how valuable he is in this format, as he annihilated all of the butterflyers with a 48.30 split to take LA from trailing by almost a second to winning by .75. Maxime Rooney produced his second sub-46 split of the campaign on the anchor in 45.85 to hold off the London Roar’s Duncan Scott and give the Current the win.

Scott had the top anchor in the field in 45.74, his first time sub-46 of the ISL season (he’s been as fast as 45.39, done in last season’s finale).

Another top swim from the relay came from London’s Guilherme Guido, who missed his own South American and Brazilian Record in the men’s 100 back by just .05 leading off in 49.50.

Yasuhiro Koseki had the fastest breast split for Tokyo in 56.36, followed closely by London’s Adam Peaty (56.38) and LA’s Felipe Silva (56.59). The Frog Kings were in the race the whole way, but Vladimir Morozov (46.47) was out-matched by Scott on freestyle.

The fly split from Shields is what truly broke things open for LA.