Men’s 4×200 Free Relay Finals: Detti in For Italy, Pieroni/Haas Join USA

2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
• Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
• The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
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The men’s 4×200 relay line-ups are officially released as a high-stakes final looms around the corner. The 2-time defending champs, Great Britain, will have to fend off top 4 prelims seeds Italy, Russia, USA, and Australia to continue their winning streak.

Top 8 Relay Line-Ups:

1. Great Britain: (Scott, Jarvis, Dean, Guy)
2. China: (Ji, Wang, Xu, Sun)
3. USA: (Seliskar, Pieroni, Apple, Haas)
4. Italy: (Megli, Detti, Ballo, di Cola)
5. Russia: (Dovgalyuk, Vekovischev, Kransykh, Malyutin)
6. Australia: (Lewis, Chalmers, Graham, Horton)
7. Brazil: (Melo, Scheffer, de Lucca, Correia)
8. Germany: (Zellmann, Miroslaw, Heidtmann, Wierling)

Great Britain

The British have tossed in freestyle pros Duncan Scott and James Guy alongside Calum Jarvis and Tom Dean for a lethal quartet out of lane one to defend their world title. In prelims, Dean lead off with a 1:47.34 while Jarvis split a 1:45.94. In the 200 free final, Scott tied for the bronze medal with a 1:45.63 while Guy is a 1:45-capable swimmer as well.

USA

Zach Apple and Andrew Seliskar swam 1:45-mids in the prelims, earning them a second relay swim and showing their true relay potential. Replacing Jack Conger and Jack LeVant are 100/200 free specialists Blake Pieroni and Townley Haas. While neither Seliskar or Haas advanced into the 200 free final, both have proved they are capable of splitting sub-1:46. Pieroni, alongside Apple, have become newly-minted American relay assets as they aided the USA to gold in the 4×100 free relay.

Australia

The Aussies have kept the two fastest 1:46 prelims swimmers, Alexander Graham and Mack Horton, for the relay final. The remaining spots went to 200 free finalist Clyde Lewis, who went 1:45.78 in the final, and sprinter Kyle Chalmers. The Aussies will be in a tight race for a medal as two other relays are right on their tail.

Italy

For the Italians, distance stud Gabriele Detti will join the relay for the final. In prelims, the remaining members of Filippo Megli, Stefano Ballo, and Stefano di Cola were all within the 1:45-1:46 range. With the addition of Detti, the Italians could be major medal threats.

Russia

Russia will have a tight race with the Italians as their prelims swimmers of Mikhail Vekovischev, Mikhail Dovgalyuk, and Aleksandr Kransykh were also in the 1:45-1:46 split range. Martin Malyutin will be joining the Russians in the final and could be able to replace Ivan Girev‘s 1:47.01 split from prelims to challenge the rest of the field.