FLASH! USA Women’s 4×100 Free Relay Crush Australia’s WR In Budapest
The USA women’s 4×100 free relay took 0.42 off Australia’s WR as the records kept tumbling at the short-course worlds in Budapest.
The quartet of Kate Douglass, Katharine Berkoff, Alex Shackell and Gretchen Walsh were inside WR pace throughout and came home in 3:25.01.
The splits:
- Kate Douglass 50.95
- Katharine Berkoff 51.38
- Alex Shackell 52.01
- Gretchen Walsh 50.67
It caps an unbelievable day for most of the group, with Douglass setting the world record in the 200 IM to win gold, Walsh twice downing the 50 fly world record and Berkoff putting herself in position for a medal in the 100 back, finishing second in semifinals to teammate Regan Smith.
Douglass is now up to nine career World Short-Course Championships gold medals and 14 total medals. The medal is the first for Walsh at this meet, after three medals (one relay gold) at the long-course World Championships and four medals (two gold in relays) at the Paris Olympics.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” Shackell said. “It was the first world record i have been a part of so that’s a dream come true. feel like its just building off of this summer and things are going really well and I am looking forward to the rest of the week
I am really excited for more relays and especially for my individual swim on thursday. The 200 fly should be really fun.
The Americans took down the world record set by the Australians in Melbourne in 2022 with the team of Mollie O’Callaghan, Madison Wilson, Meg Harris and Emma McKeon. The latter’s otherworldly anchor split of 49.96 drove that time to 3:25.43.
The Aussies earned silver in 3:28.25 on Tuesday via Harris, Milla Jansen, Alexandria Perkins and Lani Pallister. The Aussies were sixth after Harris’ leadoff leg, but 51.6s in the middle got them back onto the podium.
The bronze medal went to Canada thanks to Mary-Sophie Harvey, Summer McIntosh, Ingrid Wilm and Penny Oleksiak. Harvey and McIntosh picked up their second medals of the session after bronze and gold, respectively, in the 400 freestyle. McIntosh had the fastest split of 51.81. Oleksiak went 52.01 on the anchor to hold off the Neutral Athletes, which punt Arina Surkova’s 52.14 on the end.
The Neutral Athletes ran second through the front half after Daria Klepikova and Daria Trofimova went 51.96 and 51.36, respectively. But a 53 by Miliana Stepanova dropped them to fourth.
