The relay lineups for the final of the women’s 400 medley relay at the European Championships have been released, and half of the eight finalists have made at least one change from the preliminaries.
The Russians, who were 6th fastest this morning in 4:02.14, have brought in three new swimmers, adding Anastasiia Fesikova, Yuliya Efimova and Mariia Kameneva to go along with butterflyer Svetlana Chimrova who swam the prelims. Fesikova and Efimova are the gold medalist in their respective 100m strokes, and Chimrova and Kameneva hold the Russian National Records in theirs.
Russia set the European Record in winning silver at last summer’s World Championships, and have to be considered the favorites for gold.
The other moves made were Great Britain adding Georgia Davies onto their backstroke leg and the Germans adding Aliena Schmidtke on their fly leg.
Among the teams standing pat are the Danes, who took the top seed this morning in 3:58.40. They boast a strong squad with Pernille Blume on their anchor. We’ll also seek Katinka Hosszu leading off for the Hungarians out of lane 8.
James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism.
Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …
