The British team defeated the Americans in order to better their world record performance from prelims and win another gold, topping the medal table after four days of competition.
Christopher Walker-Hebborn, Adam Peaty, Siobhan Marie O’Connor and Fran Halsall collectively put up a 3:41.71 in order to take 0.62 seconds of the United States’ 3:42.33 record.
USA’s prelim WR splits
- Murphy – 52.18
- Cordes – 58.33
- Stewart – 57.78
- Neal – 54.04
Great Britain’s finals WR splits
- Walker-Hebborn – 52.94
- Peaty – 57.98
- O’Connor – 26.47
- Halsall – 53.77
Walker-Hebborn managed to put the Brits in second, being one of two swimmers (himself and China’s Jiayu Xu) to dip under 53-seconds. Following his performance was 100m breaststroke world record holder Adam Peaty who put up a remarkable 57.98 breaststroke split.
After Peaty’s performance, the Brits had a sizable lead as Siobhan Marie O’Connor dove into the water to swim the fly. Splitting a 57.02, she held onto the lead. Enter Fran Halsall who split an identical 53.77 to American Margo Geer, and the Brits won the race in a new world record.
The new world record makes Peaty a world record holder in three separate events spanning the 50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke, and 4x100m mixed medley relay.
The win gave the Brits their fourth gold medal of the swimming portion of these World Championships, putting them in first ahead of the Americans. Had the Americans won, they would be on top of the medals table heading into day five.
RACE VIDEO
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x30hwl2_4x100-mixed-relay-final-world-swimming-championships-kazan-2015_sport
Ok Murphy was the key and he missed his race by touching the lane line ( as i have read somewhere ) – Usa would have been faster by putting Manuel on the anchor , not Geer !!!
yaiks, Morozov was mad, 47.2!
O’Connor – 26.47!
As some of the regular commenters have probably noticed, I am a huge Murphy fan. I was not surprised at all that he gained time in the final. I thought for sure they were going to use Grevers because of finals experience and consistency, but I guess the way to learn how to handle big international finals is to experience one. What better one to experience than the least important one?
I think he got the jitters out and I think he should have a fantastic 200 back. Probably won’t win. I will give that one to Larkin, Murphy will probably be third or fourth. However, I do think Murphy will win both backstrokes in Rio next year.
I disagree (but in a good way). I believe Murphy can win the 200 and if he doesn’t, then at least medal. No way he is fourth or lower. He learned a valuable lesson. He is definitely on his way.
Murphy CHOCKED in that relay. Both metaphorically and perhaps literally. I guess he is human after all but its obvious that whatever he took before the prelims didn’t have the same effect for the final. Good job Great Britain. WORLD RECORD!
I don’t know if Choke is the right word. He went out in 25.1 where the rest of the field was pretty much 25.5 or slower. He went after it. He certainly got tight on the back half though. I’ll take a swimmer who is not afraid to race hard up front than someone who holds back and tries to conserve energy any day of the week. It shows moxie.
He probably did not feel much pressure in the morning because he is not ‘the man’ in the final, and thus just went out and did what he knew how to do…sure there was more pressure in the final. But I think he probably was SO AMPED up that… Read more »
I accept that my earlier assessment using the description of ‘chocked’ perhaps wasn’t completely accurate. I just couldn’t believe he was overtaken in the way that he did by Walker Hebborn and Jiayu Xu. After getting so close to the world record in the heats and then replacing Grievers in the final I think that may have put a lot on his back especially being as young as a teenager however considering his level of ability in the pool you would have thought he would have been charged up to go even faster than he did in the heat relay swim. Nevertheless as I said, he is only human. Times certainly do seem to be changing concerning the standard of… Read more »