World Championships, Day Eight Finals: Neutral Athletes (Russia) Fire European Record in 400 Medley Relay; France and USA Reach Podium
Officially, history will show the champion of the men’s 400-meter medley relay at the World Championships as the Neutral Athletes B squad. That name is a moniker for Russia, and the nation certainly capped its return to international competition in grand fashion in Singapore.
Behind the contingent of Miron Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Andrei Minakov and Egor Kornev, Russia blazed to a European record of 3:26.93. The effort is the second-fastest time in history, just off the United States’ world record of 3:26.78, and handed Russia victory over France (3:27.96). The bronze medal went to Team USA (3:28.62), which clipped Italy (3:28.72) on the strength of Jack Alexy’s anchor leg.
Due to its invasion of and war on Ukraine, Russia has been bannd from the global stage since the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. This summer, however, World Aquatics opened the door for Russian athletes to compete, albeit under a Neutral Athletes flag. The Russians – whether one agrees with their presence or not – took advantage of the invitation, finishing the meet with eight medals – three gold, four silvers and a bronze.
Lifintsev opened with a backstroke split of 52.44, which put NAB in third place, behind Italy and France. A split of 57.92 on breaststroke from Prigoda lifted Russia into second place and Minakov remained in that position with a butterfly leg of 50.17. On the freestyle anchor, Kornev took over the lead and never relinquished that edge, his split of 46.40 the second-fastest in the field.
After qualifying for the final as the seventh seed, France tinkered with its lineup for the evening and grabbed the silver medal. Yohann Ndoye-Brouard opened with a backstroke leg of 52.26 and was followed by a 58.44 breaststroke split from Leon Marchand, who was coming off a victory in the 400 individual medley. Maxime Grousset handled the butterfly leg in 49.27 and was followed home by Yann le Goff (47.99).
For the United States, reaching the podium came down to a superb anchor leg from Alexy. The United States sat sixth after the backstroke leg, handled by Tommy Janton in 53.37. Josh Matheny (59.00) moved the United States to fifth on breaststroke and Dare Rose (50.30) lifted Team USA to fourth on butterfly. That’s when Alexy took over and clocked 45.95, the second-fastest split in history. Only China’s Pan Zhanle has been quicker, going 45.92 on the end of the medley relay at last summer’s Olympic Games.
