The relay lineups have been announced for the men’s 400 free relay tonight, and the Americans have chosen Nathan Adrian to lead-off, followed by Ryan Lochte, Anthony Ervin, and Jimmy Feigen. This means that Matt Grevers, despite being 6th in the 100 free at the U.S. World Championship Trials, won’t participate in either round at this meet.
The Americans also chose Feigen, with a 48.39 leadoff in prelims, over Ricky Berens, who was faster when reaction-time was excluded: again going against the standard thought process for USA Swimming.
Australia will use James Magnussen on the leadoff, putting him up head-to-head with Adrian; the Russians will use Morozov on their 3rd leg, which is where we saw him swim often at USC, and save Danila Izotov for the anchor. Andrey Grechin, who was so fast leading off at the World University Games, will lead off here. The Russians need him to be under 48 seconds.
And finally, in a bit of the surprise, after finally making an international final, the Brazilians are leaving the same four on their relay, and not using Cesar Cielo. They have, however, moved Marcelo Chierighini to their anchor leg.
Germany: Steffen Deibler/Markus Deibler/Fildebrandt/Colupaev
Italy: Dotto/Leonardi/Orsi/Magnini
Australia: Magnussen/McEvoy/D’Orsogna/Roberts
USA: Adrian/Lochte/Ervin/Feigen
Russia: Grechin/Lobintsev/Morozov/Izotov
France: Agnel/Manaudou/Gilot/Stravius
Brazil: Oliveira/Santos/Waked/Chierighini
Japan: Shioura/Kobase/Fujii/Ito
What’s the analysis on Adrian’s split time? Did he do better, worse, or about what was predicted?
worse, but he’s sick.
46.9 from Gilot on the french relay, that’s where it happened…
The French outswam the USA on that relay. Congrats to them. The US postmortem is gonna be interesting
Hey guys,remember the post about the new medals ? Cant find them here in Barcelona 😉
A swimmer splits 47.5 and then gets kicked off the relay for Lochte? Gee, that’s never happened before… Oh wait. Last year anyone? God, the coaches have some serious guts to pull this again. I don’t care about reaction time, Lochte has never been in the 47.5 stratosphere. I wonder whether USA swimming just wants a new face for the organization, so they’re putting Lochte everywhere they can.
Ding Ding Ding….They need a new poster boy after Phelps retired…Lochte is the only possibility. What will happen if he splits 47.8 again?
…And it happened again.
Can the US coaching staff please, PLEASE stop shafting the other, faster swimmers in favor of putting Lochte on the 4×100 free relay!!
The USA relay order is smart. Choosing Lochte over Berens could be good if Lochte’s mind is set on redemption. Adrian to lead off against Magnussen is smart to hold off Australia, and then Lochte to try to not fall too behind Cam McEvoy, having Ervin third is smart to build momentum and pull in front of Australia and to also Ervin is key to hold off Morozov so Russia don’t touch in first after the third leg. Morozov spit 47.1 at WUG and Ervin could out split Morozov tonight if he opens like he did in the morning. All up to Feigen; the pressure is on him.
France, USA, and and Australia will be far ahead after the first leg thanks to Agnel, Adrian, and Magnessun respectively. However, after Mozorov’s leg (third), Russia will take the lead and will win the race.
Russia peaked two weeks ago, but should be able to secure that bronze.
WOW! Why would Brazil leave their greatest swimmer ever off the relay? The only Brazilian in that relay who could out split Cielo is Marcelo Cherigini. Bad mistake.