2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
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The Australian men continued to lay waste to the national and continental books Saturday night, as they knocked over two seconds off of the existing Oceanian Record in the 200 medley relay.
Heading into today, the existing record was a 1:33.06 set back in 2018. But that record fell by the wayside in the finals of the 200 medley relay, as the Australia quartet of Isaac Cooper, Grayson Bell, Matthew Temple, and Kyle Chalmers, skipped right over 1:32 and 1:31 and clocked a 1:30.81 for a bronze medal.
Here’s how tonight’s splits compare to those of the previous record, set in 2018.
| 2018 | 2022 | |||
| Back | Mitch Larkin | 23.36 | Isaac Cooper | 22.66 |
| Breast | Grayson Bell | 26.51 | Grayson Bell | 25.92 |
| Fly | Cameron Jones | 22.45 | Matthew Temple | 21.75 |
| Free | Cameron McEvoy | 20.74 | Kyle Chalmers | 20.48 |
| Total | 1:33.06 | 1:30.81 |
The Australian men were faster on every single leg tonight than they were in 2018, with the biggest differences coming on back and fly, where each leg was exactly 0.70s faster. Grayson Bell, the only member of both squads, was 0.59s faster tonight than in 2018, and Kyle Chalmers outsplit 2018 Cameron McEvoy by 0.26s.
So far, Australia and Italy are the only two nations to have medaled in all four men’s relays this week. The Aussies have set continental records in all four of those relays, and can make it a clean sweep with a record in the 400 medley relay on the last day of competition.
The 4th-place Japanese men also lowered their own national and Asian records in the 200 medley relay today, as Takeshi Kawamoto, Yuha Hinomoto, Yuha Tanaka, and Masahiro Kawane combined for a 1:31.28. That lowered the previous mark of 1:32.62, also set back in 2016.
Comparative Splits:
| 2016 | 2022 | |||
| Back | Junya Koga | 22.98 | Takeshi Kawamoto | 22.93 |
| Breast | Yoshiki Yamanaka | 26.63 | Yuha Hinomoto | 25.64 |
| Fly | Takeshi Kawamoto | 22.15 | Yuha Tanaka | 22.13 |
| Free | Kenta Ito | 20.86 | Masahiro Kawane | 20.58 |
| Total | 1:32.62 | 1:31.28 |
Takeshi Kawamoto swam on both relays, but took over leadoff duties today after swimming fly in 2018. The biggest different came on breaststroke, where Yuha Hinomoto was almost a second faster than Yoshiki Yamanaka was in 2018.
Other national records from the 200 medley relay:
- The German men shaved 0.01s off of their national record with a 1:31.79, en route to a 6th place finish in the final.
- With three of the four women who previously held the record, the Canadian women lowered their national mark from 1:44.16 to 1:43.56. Maggie MacNeil proved the be the decisive factor, improving her fly split from 24.85 to 24.40.
- The French women crushed their record previous record of 1:45.35 with 1:43.96, good for 6th place overall.
- It was a huge drop for the Czech women. Heading into the day, the national record stood at 1:53.18, but they lowered it to 1:46.73 in prelims before going 1:46.40 in finals.
I have a real problem with these obscure records. It’s like the baseballification of swimming, and possibly a sign that the sport I love is very boring.
Also is Japan on a continent? Here is the intro on Wiki:
“Japan (Japanese: 日本, Nippon or Nihon,[nb 1] and formally 日本国, Nihonkoku)[nb 2] is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 6,852 islands covering 377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi); the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the “mainland”), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the nation’s capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.”
1. You seem to be using “baseballification” in a pejorative sense, which is weird to me, because I love baseball.
2. I wouldn’t call national or continental records edit “obscure.” Now, if we were writing about the fastest 200 medley relay ever done on a Tuesday where all four swimmers were between the age of 22-25 from a country south of the Equator, ala John Candy’s character in the classic 90s flick Rookie of the Year, now that might be obscure and a sign that we had nothing better about which to write.
3. Japan is generally considered to be part of Asia, and the country participates at the Asian Swimming Championship. Their relay was the fastest time… Read more »
I appreciate your writing Robert.
I actually do think these records are notable in some way. However they are 4×50 scm records and those don’t tend to live long. What actually bothers me is those even more obscure records like “fastest 200 medley relay ever done on a Tuesday where all four swimmers were between the age of 22-25 from a country south of the Equator” Im pretty sure ive seen records like that on here.