2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00* am ET
- *The final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET
- Live Results (Omega)
Danas Rapsys broke the World Championship Record on the lead-off leg of Lithuania’s preliminary 4×200 freestyle relay, going 1:40.95 to slip under Park Tae Hwan‘s record of 1:41.03 set two years ago in Windsor when he won the gold medal.
Rapsys, who also set a new Championship Record in the 400 freestyle when he won gold on night 1 in 3:34.01, has been as fast as 1:40.85 in this event, done at the 2017 European Championships, but failed to hit that mark in the individual 200 freestyle.
Just one day after that 400 final, the 23-year-old finished as the runner-up to American Blake Pieroni (1:41.49) in the 200 free final in a time of 1:41.78, almost a full second off his lifetime best.
Despite his insanely quick split, which was over two seconds faster than anyone else who led off, the team ended up missing the final placing 10th overall in a time of 7:03.39. However, that did obliterate their existing National Record by over thirteen seconds.
If only I had a dollar for every time a swimmer produces a split in the relay lead-off that is faster than the winning time in the individual event.
Should have put Simonas Bilis in has a best time of 1:45.81 and a 1:32.0 200 yard free.
The third leg was 1.49.36 and Lithuania missed the final by 1.2 secs to Portugal. Ouch!
Thirteen?!?!?!