44 Split Highlights Men’s 4×200 Free Relay Battle

2024 World Aquatics Championships

The men’s 4×200 freestyle relay final on Friday night saw a strong showing with three athletes with splits of less than 1 minute 44 seconds, taking them less than a quarter of a second from the podium and placing them at the 2024 Worlds. It was one of the most thrilling battles ever in the championship. Championship held in Doha, Qatar.

Men’s 4×200 Freestyle Relay — Finals

• World record: 6:58.55 — USA (2009)
• Championship record: 6:58.55 — USA (2009)
• Junior World Record: 7:08.37 — USA (2019)
• 2023 World Champion: 6:59.08 — Great Britain

1. China (Zi, Wang, Pan, Zhang), 7:01.84
2. South Korea (Yang, Kim, Lee, Hwang), 7:01.94
3. America (Hobson, Foster, Armstrong, Johnston), 7:02.08
4. Great Britain (Richards, M. Litchfield, McMillan, Scott), 7:05.09
5. Italy (Megri, Ragaini, Ciampi, Di Cola), 7:07.00
6. Greece (Markos, Engurzakis, Stamou, Vazaios), 7:09.10
7. Lithuania (Lapsis, Nabikonis, Lucminas, Jazdauskas), 7:11.57
8. Spain (Castro, Dominguez, de Celis Montalban, Mora Yanez), 7:11.65

Hwang Sun Woo He kicked South Korea’s anchor leg with a blistering 1:43.76 split, the fastest split of the event, and took the silver medal over the United States, but the individual 200 free champion was never able to catch up. Zhang Zhenshuo (1:45.80), giving China the gold medal by a narrow margin. It was an impressive comeback for the Koreans, who had come back from last place after the first leg of the relay.

On the other hand, the American quartet luke hobson (1:45.26), carson foster (1:43.94), hunter armstrong (1:45.73), and david johnston (1:47.15) was forced to settle for the bronze medal after leading the first three legs of the race and leading by nearly three seconds at the halfway point.

lead off leg

University of Texas Junior luke hobson He ran Team USA’s fastest 200 free leadoff in the field at 1:45.26. This was the same time he had won the bronze medal a few days earlier. The 20-year-old American holds a lifetime best of 1:44.87 at last year’s World Championships, and in this relay he was one minute en route to silver (7:00.02) behind Great Britain (6:00.02). He started this relay with a time of 46.00 seconds. :59.08).

british Matthew Richards Although he chose not to defend his world title in the 200m free this week, he had the second-fastest leadoff in the field in 1:46.22. The 21-year-old won the 200 free in Fukuoka last year with a personal best time of 1:44.30. Richards only competed in the 100 free individual event in Doha, finishing fourth (47.82), just 0.04 seconds off the podium.

In the 200 free, Lithuania won the silver medal (1:45.05), second only to Fan (1:44.75). Danas Lapsis He set a split of 1:46.37, putting his team in 3rd place heading into the second leg of the relay. In 2019, it was 1:44.38.

Ji Xinjie At leadoff, he came within a second of his lifetime best of 1:46.45, quickly keeping China within range.

second leg

Foster set the first of three splits under 1 minute 44 seconds, increasing the American lead to nearly three seconds at the halfway point of the race. His 1:43.94 was more than half a second faster than last year’s 1:44.49 split and more than 1.5 seconds faster than his flat-start 200 free best (1:45.57) at the 2022 U.S. International Team Trials. .

After the opening leg, he was in 8th place. Kim Woo Min In the second leg, he passed five other competitors with a split of 1 minute 44.93 seconds. Kim had clocked a time of 1:46.06 in November despite having a consistent start.

Wang Haoyu Overtaking Britain with a time difference of 1:45.69 max litchfield (1:46.89), putting China on the podium heading into the third leg. Wang’s lifetime best (flat start) is 1:47.45, set in March last year.

third leg

After starting the week by missing the 200 free semifinal in Monday’s preliminaries in 1:51.03; Pan Zanre China closed out the match with a split of 1:43.90 in the third leg. The new 100 free world record holder single-handedly cut his lead over the American from 2.94 seconds to 1.11 seconds.

backstroke specialist hunter armstrong He showed a significant time improvement of 1:45.73, which was significantly better than his 2019 personal best (flat start) time of 1:53.26. Lee Ho Jun A split of 1 minute, 45.47 seconds cut into the American advantage, setting the stage for his Korean teammate, Hwang, to explode with the anchor leg.

fourth leg

Fan recorded the fastest 200 free relay split since 2022 (tom dean1:43.53) on the anchor leg to overtake the United States and rally Korea. His 1:43.76 split was more than three seconds faster than the 22-year-old American. david johnston (1:47.15), his best flat-start time was just 1:51.48 at last summer’s U.S. Trials.

However, Huang fell just one-tenth of a second short of beating Zhang (1:45.80), whose time was good enough to win a historic gold medal for China. He was the first Chinese man to win this event.

duncan scottThe 26-year-old boasted the second-fastest anchor leg in the field at 1:45.59, but his British team still finished fourth (7:05.09), a few seconds behind the Americans (7:02.08). Ended.both are greek Andreas Vazaios (1:46.69) And of Lithuania Lokas Jazdauskas (1:49.21) The anchor leg here earned each country the right to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Splits under 1:44:

Note

• Lithuania finished seventh with a time of 7 minutes 11.57 seconds, narrowly qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics. If this final time is tied, Hungary (7 minutes 11.57 seconds at the 2023 World Championships) will be tied for 17th place in the overall standings of the past two World Championships, outside of the bubble (the top 16 will advance to this summer’s Olympics). Fortunately, Lithuania was even faster in the preliminaries, earning the 13th seed with a time of 7:09.97. Greece, which was unable to swim the 4×200 free relay at last year’s World Championships, also qualified for the Paris Olympics with a time of 7:09.10 in 6th place.
• British veterans had the fastest reaction times. max litchfield When he left the blocks in the second leg, just 0.01 seconds behind his teammate. Matthew Richards I touched the wall. Kim Woo Min In the second leg in Korea, the reaction time from the block was 0.10, which was the second fastest.
• The race’s three sub-1 minute 44-second times exceeded the previous two world championships combined. tom dean He was the only athlete to break that barrier in both events (1:43.53 in 2022, 1:43.84 in 2023). Dean did not represent Great Britain in the race this time.