Brittany Maclean Breaks Canadian Record In 400 Free, Advances To Final

2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES

• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Swimming: August 6-13
• Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro
• Prelims – 9:00 a.m/12:00 p.m PST/EST (1:00 p.m local), Finals – 6:00 p.m/9:00 p.m PST/EST (10:00 p.m local)
• SwimSwam previews 
• Day 1 Schedule & Results
• Live Stream (NBC)

Canadian Brittany Maclean broke her own Canadian record this morning in the women’s 400 free prelims, finishing 3rd in her heat and 5th overall to safely qualify for the 400 free final tonight.

Maclean put up a time of 4:03.43, bettering her previous record of 4:03.84 set at the Canadian Olympic Trials back in April.

This isn’t Maclean’s first Olympic final, as four years ago in London she made the final qualifying 6th overall in a new Canadian record at the time of 4:05.06. She ultimately finished 7th.

Here’s a comparative look at Maclean’s splits from her three national record breaking swims:

• 2012 London Olympics (Prelims): 58.98 (1:01.84) (1:02.64) (1:01.60), 4:05.06
• 2016 Olympic Trials (Final): 58.72 (1:01.54) (1:01.98) (1:01.60), 4:03.84
• 2016 Rio Olympics (Prelims): 58.49 (1:01.23) (1:02.07) (1:01.64) 4:03.43 CR

Maclean made up ground on her previous record on the front half ,and was able to hang in on the back half to take the record by over four tenths.

Leading the pack this morning was American Katie Ledecky, who established a new Olympic record of 3:58.71. Also qualifying ahead of Maclean was Jazz Carlin (GBR), Leah Smith (USA) and Coralie Balmy (FRA).

Maclean will swim in lane 2 tonight, and will look to improve on her morning swim, something she wasn’t able to do four years ago.