Top-Seeded Americans Bring in Two More Big Names for Men’s 4×200 Free Relay Final (LINEUPS)

2024 Short Course World Championships

Avoiding the errors of the mixed 200 free relay, the Americans for the first time this meet came out of prelims with the top-seeded relay thanks in part to a 1:40.88 leadoff split from the new-and-improved Shaine Casas.

Casas will return for finals, as will anchor and American individual entry Kieran Smith (1:42.89 in prelims). They will be joined in finals by possibly the two best 200 freestylers on the roster: Luke Hobson and Carson Foster. Hobson was the Olympic bronze medalist in long course in this event and is very good in short course as well.

With a 6:51.69 in prelims, the Americans would need to find 7.5 seconds in finals to break the World Record that Team USA set in 2022. The Foster and Hobson additions are probably good for about 6.75 of those seconds, and the rest will be on Smith to split a 1:41 on a roll in finals.

It seems unlikely that any other relay has the upgrades to catch the Americans so it’s a battle for silver. Australia, the #2 seeds, are using the same lineup as they did in prelims. They do have some time to drop from those legs: for example Edward Sommerville anchored in 1:42.01 but is the top seed in the individual 200 free at 1:40.64.

The 3rd-seeded Italians swapped their last two legs, dropping a 1:43.8 and 1:44.1.

The other big news

Men’s 800 Free Relay Lineups, Sorted by Seed Time

Lane Team Swimmer 1 Swimmer 2 Swimmer 3 Swimmer 4 Seed Time
4 USA Luke Hobson Carson Foster Shaine Casas Kieran Smith 6:51.69
5 AUS Maximillian Giuliani Edward Sommerville Harrison Turner Elijah Winnington 6:53.50
3 ITA Filippo Megli Manuel Frigo Carlos D’Ambrosio Alberto Razzetti 6:53.89
2 ESP Luis Dominguez Miguel Perez-Godoy Brageli Nacho Campos Beas Sergio de Celis Montalban 6:56.04
6 CHN Tao Guannan Xu Yizhou Liu Wudi He Yubo 6:55.96
7 GER Rafael Miroslaw Kaii Winkler Timo Sorgius Florian Wellbrock 6:57.18
1 NAB Dmitrii Zhavoronkov Aleksandr Shchegolev Aleksei Sudarev Roman Akimov 6:57.59
8 JPN Tatsuya Murasa Kazushi Imafuku Kaito Tabuchi Daiki Yanagawa 7:01.23

Men’s 800 Free Relay Lineups, Sorted by Lane

Lane Team Swimmer 1 Swimmer 2 Swimmer 3 Swimmer 4
1 NAB Dmitrii Zhavoronkov Aleksandr Shchegolev Aleksei Sudarev Roman Akimov
2 ESP Luis Dominguez Miguel Perez-Godoy Brageli Nacho Campos Beas Sergio de Celis Montalban
3 ITA Filippo Megli Manuel Frigo Carlos D’Ambrosio Alberto Razzetti
4 USA Luke Hobson Carson Foster Shaine Casas Kieran Smith
5 AUS Maximillian Giuliani Edward Sommerville Harrison Turner Elijah Winnington
6 CHN Tao Guannan Xu Yizhou Liu Wudi He Yubo
7 GER Rafael Miroslaw Kaii Winkler Timo Sorgius Florian Wellbrock
8 JPN Tatsuya Murasa Kazushi Imafuku Kaito Tabuchi Daiki Yanagawa

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EXCALIBUR
7 hours ago

This relay is gonna be super fast !!! and maybe a new WR setting relay

Kevin
7 hours ago

I’m curious why Hobson always is the lead off for the 800 relay. He doesn’t seem to have some amazing start. Here it probably makes sense to give him another crack at getting WR prize money but seems like an odd quirk

bobthebuilderrocks
7 hours ago

Very nice!

Luke WR

Last edited 7 hours ago by bobthebuilderrocks

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Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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