Friday, December 16, 2022
World Records, Re-Swims, Event Debuts and More from #FINAMelbourne2022 Day 4
Day four’s finals of the 2022 FINA World Championships (25m) was filled with American medalists, dramatic events, a world record from a U.S. relay and the competition’s debut of the women’s 1500m freestyle.
The men’s 4x200m freestyle relay saw its world record go down this evening in Melbourne, courtesy of the U.S.’ 6:44.12. The time shaved 2.69 seconds off the previous world record which was set by Brazil in 2018.
“Well, that was fun,” head coach Braden Holloway said. “What an amazing relay by those four guys. It was their goal to break the world record. It was their goal to get their hand on the wall. And it was their goal to stand on that podium and hear our national anthem. Four awesome legs and they swam the races that they needed to. They stayed within themselves and didn’t get distracted by other teams. They showed a lot of composure. It was a lot of fun to watch. We’re really proud of those men.”
The U.S. sent out its same relay quartet as it did for the event at this summer’s long course meter world championships in Budapest. Kieran Smith led this relay off with a 1:41.04 split, followed by Carson Foster’s 1:40.48, Trenton Julian’s 1:41.44 and Drew Kibler’s 1:41.16. Jake Magahey and Jake Foster also receive medals for their efforts in the event’s prelims.
Continuing its dominance in the breaststroke events at this meet, the U.S. posted a 1-2 finish in the women’s 200m breaststroke final with Kate Douglass taking gold in 2:15.77 and Lilly King taking silver in 2:17.13. This marks the third-consecutive world title in the event at this competition, as well as the third-consecutive podium, with two Americans on it.
“It was awesome getting to race next to Lilly (King),” Douglass said. “It felt really smooth this morning so I was trying to keep that the same in this final swim and come back a lot faster. Having Lilly helped push me to do that.”
Douglass’ personal best makes her the seventh-fastest performer in history and the third fastest in American history.
Nic Fink added to his increasingly-large tally of medals at the competition with a 200m breaststroke silver, swimming an American-record time of 2:01.60. The time is the eighth fastest in the history of the event and makes him the only American to ever go under 2:02.
“I’ve been kind of stuck at 2:02.02 for a very long time so that now I broke that time – going to the 2:01 midrange – it’s something to be proud of,” Fink said.
The 50m backstroke saw 18-year-old Claire Curzan take silver in 25.54, shaving .06 seconds off her American-record swim in yesterday’s semifinals. The win earns Curzan her fourth medal of the competition so far.
“It was fun,” Curzan said of the swim. “I knew the field was stacked with those ladies and honestly, the goal was just to have fun and I had a blast. So I think that was a success.”
The men’s 50m backstroke was the most dramatic event of the session. When the initial race was contested, there was a technical error at the start that resulted in numerous buzzers going off. Multiple swimmers heard the issue and stopped swimming, while others swam the race as normal. After the issue, FINA spoke with all the competing athletes and team officials from the competing countries, it was unanimously agreed that the competition would be re-swum later in the session.
The re-swim went to the benefit of Ryan Murphy, who won the U.S.’ first world title in the event since Neil Walker in 2000. Murphy went 22.64 for the win, with just .1 seconds separating the three medalists.
“Definitely an interesting last hour,” Murphy said. “On the first one, we all heard the double beep but you know, you’re in a world championship final – you’ve got to go. You’ve got to finish that race. And then I hit the wall and thought that the wedge was still in and thought we’d have to do it again. It worked out in my favor but I feel for (silver medalist Isaac Allan Cooper). He’s a young guy and winning a world title is something that means a lot so I’m going to be sure to talk to him in the warm down pool and to give him my congratulations.”
Murphy now has a chance for a backstroke sweep following his 50m and 100m backstroke golds. The 200m event final will be swum on Sunday.
The last individual medal that was claimed by an American on the day came in the competition’s debut of the women’s 1500m freestyle, despite not having an American in the fastest heat.
In the morning heats, Kensey McMahon clocked a 15:49.15, more than 20 seconds ahead of those in her heat. After the fastest heats were swum this evening, McMahon’s time was good enough to slide her into third place for her first senior-level international medal.
“It’s been a really exciting day overall. I gave everything I had in the morning. Team USA’s support has been incredible so at the end of the day, whatever happened was going to happen. I’m definitely very happy with the results and thankful for my support system.”
Competition continues through Sunday at the Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre, with prelims beginning at 7 p.m. ET and finals at 3:30 a.m. ET. All sessions can be streamed on www.youtube.com/fina1908. For more on the competition, click here.