2021 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, December 16th – Tuesday, December 21st
- Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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MEN’S 4×50 MEDLEY RELAY – HEATS:
- World Record: 1:30.14 – Italy – 3 NOV 2021
- Championship Record: 1:30.51 – Brazil – 4 DEC 2014
Top 8 Qualifiers:
- Russian Swimming Federation – 1:32.52
- Egypt – 1:33.19
- Brazil – 1:33.21
- United States – 1:33.29
- Italy – 1:33.60
- Norway – 1:34.33
- Poland – 1:34.54
- Lithuania – 1:35.20
Egypt took 2nd in this morning’s prelims of the men’s 200 medley relay in a time of 1:33.19. The team of Mohamed Samy, Youssef Elkamash, Youssef Ramadan, and Abdelrahman Sameh shredded the African Record in the process. The previous African Record was held by South Africa at 1:34.30 from the 2014 Short Course World Champs. That South African team featured Olympic Gold medalist and 6-time World Champs Gold medalist breaststroker Cameron van der Burgh, as well as Olympic Gold medalist and 14-time World Champs Gold medalist butterflier Chad le Clos.
Here is a split comparison between Egypt’s performance this morning, and the 2014 World Champs South African team’s previous African Record performance:
| Split | Egypt 2021 SC World Champs (New African Record) | South Africa 2014 SC World Champs (Previous African Record) |
| Backstroke | Mohamed Samy (23.69) | Charl Crous (24.42) |
| Breaststroke | Youssef Elkamash (26.40) | Cameron Van der Burgh (26.20) |
| Butterfly | Youssef Ramadan (22.37) | Chad le Clos (22.12) |
| Freestyle | Abdelrahman Sameh (20.73) | Luke Pendock (21.56) |
| Final Time | 1:33.19 | 1:34.30 |
Unsurprisingly, Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos were faster on the breast and fly leg back in 2014 than Elkamash and Ramadan were this morning. Egypt was significantly faster on back and free, however. They’ll have an opportunity to lower the record further in finals tonight, where they’ll be racing in lane 5.
This seems like a really big deal to have a country without as much of a swimming tradition throw down a relay record like this. It’d be great to see more success out of Egypt and some of the other African nations.
Must’ve been a thrill to run down Zapple and the U.S., too. Good for them.
Egypt is continuously rising as a top swimming country in Africa , starting to challenge the South Africans on the top of the podium at african champs
I see what you mean but Egypt has a rich swimming tradition with world record holders in the more adventurous Open Water events with Abdellatief Abou Heif and Osama Momtaz. Included should also Rania Elwani be as a world stage swimmer and member of the parliament and Akram Mahmoud fourth at world championships in Kazan 2015 in the 1500. Obviously Football (soccer) is bigger but swimming is a highly regarded sport in Egypt. A good surprise however.
I agree, they’re starting to get brand new talent within the country that’s starting to show up in big ways and hopefully this will become the norm for Egypt to qualify so high up in relays.