Relay Lineups: Efimova/King Confirmed Breaststroke Medley Relay Prelims Legs

2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

Both of the women’s and men’s 4×100 medley relay preliminary events will take place for the seventh and last evening prelims session of Tokyo 2020. Both genders will showcase two heats of eight relays each, making it 16 countries vying for the Olympic final spots.

Most notably, veteran swimmers Yulia Efimova of the ROC and Lilly King of the USA have been placed on the prelims 400 medley relays for their squads. During the individual 100 breast final, teen Lydia Jacoby of the USA topped the field while Russian teen Evgeniia Chikunova of the ROC placed 4th, both their first Olympic finals. King settled for the bronze medal while Efimova finished directly behind Chikunova in 5th.

For Team Italy, Arianna Castiglioni will swim the breaststroke leg. During the individual 100 breast, teenager Benedetta Pilato was disqualified following prelims, however, Martina Carraro advanced all the way to the final.

While Penny Oleksiak will rest during this preliminaries round and be subbed with Kayla Sanchez this morning, Sarah Sjostrom will anchor the Swedish 400 medley relay twice, with a sleep in Tokyo separating the swims. Sjostrom has yet to earn a medal during these Games, however, will have swum the 100 free at least four times by the end of day seven’s events. Sjostrom will swim the women’s 100 free final to kick off the morning finals session in Tokyo, her fourth 100 free.

Switching over to the men’s side, Team Great Britain will use Duncan Scott on the anchor free leg during prelims while Team Australia will utilize Kyle Chalmers for both rounds of this relay. Brit Adam Peaty will rest this prelims session and have teamamte James Wilby swim the breast leg.

For the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), Grigory Tarasevich is slated to swim back, Anton Chupkov on the breast, Mikhail Vekovishchev on the fly, and Vladislav Grinev on the free. The powerhouse team is currently resting fly/free sprinters Andrei Minakov and Kliment Kolesnikov, 50 freestyler Vlad Morozov, and double back champion Evgeny Rylov.

Then for the USA men, Wave II Trials runner-ups Hunter ArmstrongAndrew Wilson, and Tom Shields will be joined by Blake Pieroni during this relay’s round. Pieroni was a member of the winning 4×100 free relay earlier in the meet.

Women’s 400 Medley Relay Line-Ups

Heat One

  1. South Africa (Venter, Schoenmaker, Gallagher, Canny)
  2. Japan (Konishi, Watanabe, Ikee, Igarashi)
  3. Italy (Panziera, Castiglioni, di Liddo, Pellegrini)
  4. Australia (Seebohm, Hodges, Throssell, O’Callaghan)
  5. Great Britain (Wild, Vasey, Jones, Anderson)
  6. China (Chen, Tang, Yu, Wu)
  7. Germany (Riedemann, Elendt, Hopink, Bruhn)
  8. Spain (Zamorano, Vall, Belmonte, Munoz)

Heat Two

  1. Hong Kong (Wong, Yeung, Haughey, Cheng)
  2. Netherlands (Toussaint, Schouten, de Waard, Heemskerk)
  3. ROC (Fesikova, Efimova, Chimrova, Kameneva)
  4. USA (White, King, Curzan, Brown)
  5. Canada (Ruck, Pickrem, MacNeil, Sanchez)
  6. Sweden (Coleman, S. Hansson, L. Hansson, Sjostrom)
  7. Belarus (Shkurdai, Zmushka, Kuliashova, Karakouskaya)

Men’s 400 Medley Relay Line-Ups

Heat One

  1. Canada (Thormeyer, Mastromatteo, Edwards, Kisil)
  2. Poland (Stokowski, Kozakiewicz, Majerski, Kraska)
  3. Australia (Larkin, Stubblety-Cook, Morgan, Chalmers)
  4. USA (Armstrong, Wilson, Shields, Pieroni)
  5. Italy (Ceccon, Martinenghi, Burdisso, Miressi)
  6. China (Xu, Yan, Shun, He)
  7. Belarus (Tsmyh, Shymanovich, Tsurkin, Machekin)
  8. Hungary (Bohus, Takacs, Kos, Holoda)

Heat Two

  1. Greece (Makrygiannis, Meretsolias, Vazaios, Christou)
  2. France (Ndoye-Brouard, Viquerat, Marchand, Metella)
  3. Japan (Irie, Mura, Mizunuma, Nakamura)
  4. Great Britain (Greenbank, Wilby, Guy, Scott)
  5. ROC (Tarasevich, Chupkov, Vekovishchev, Grinev)
  6. Brazil (Guido, Lima, Lanza, Chierighini)
  7. Germany (Ulrich, Matzerath, Kusch, Wierling)
  8. Lithuania (Rapsys, Sidlauskas, Margevicius, Bilis)

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Ol' Longhorn
2 years ago

Man, was this a good call, because Lilly predictably did her flat start du jour time on the relay with a flying start.

Jojo
2 years ago

aww no fink?

How much can CD bench???
Reply to  Jojo
2 years ago

I wish they would have swam him in prelims of the mixed medley relay, either him or Lazor. Both so close in trials in the 100 give them a shot at a relay medal.

NC Swim Fan
2 years ago

I’m genuinely concerned about the US men qualifying for the final.

Far behind Australia, China, Italy in heat 1.

Japan, GB, ROC, Brazil in heat 2.

Jackman
Reply to  NC Swim Fan
2 years ago

They will be absolutely fine

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Jackman
2 years ago

Agreed, might get beat by Australia and Italy in their heat, GB and ROC in the other. Should be through fine.

NC Swim Fan
Reply to  Steve Nolan
2 years ago

I really hope you are both right. It’s rare for so many in the prelim relay to not even have made the final in their individual event.

NC Swim Fan
Reply to  Jackman
2 years ago

Through in 7th. That was not fun to suffer through.

Coach
Reply to  NC Swim Fan
2 years ago

Your concerns were valid.

Bud
2 years ago

Milak isn’t Russian…

For the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), Grigory Tarasevich is slated to swim back, Anton Chupkov on the breast, Mikhail Vekovishchev on the fly, and Vladislav Grinev on the free. The powerhouse team is currently resting fly ace Kristof Milak for this relay as well as fly/free sprinters Andrei Minakov and Kliment Kolesnikov, 50 freestyler Vlad Morozov, and double back champion Evgeny Rylov.

Boobstroke
2 years ago

GB women will be tight imo. Cassie’s 200 back was questionable, and tbh there is no stronger butterfly leg among Jones or Stephens imo.

Men going almost all out. I understand leaving Joe Litchfield off but would’ve been a nice way to round out the meet for Whittle

Notanyswimmer
2 years ago

Bowe Becker deserved that anchor leg. He outsplit Pieroni twice in the 400 free relay.

SwimMom
2 years ago

Brown makes me nervous…

Curious George
Reply to  SwimMom
2 years ago

Brown is the only one on this relay other than King with big meet experience for Team USA?

SwimMom
Reply to  Curious George
2 years ago

Her experience didn’t shine in the 100 free, hopefully she will be clutch here!

oxyswim
Reply to  SwimMom
2 years ago

She had a very nice swim-off. Don’t think it’ll matter at the end of the day.

Curious George
Reply to  oxyswim
2 years ago

52.83 is a very strong performance

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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