In the first event contested on Day 4 of the Short Course World Championships in Doha, Qatar, the United States men’s 4×50 freestyle relay posted a 2nd-placed 1:25.55 to clip a 10 year-old American record by 0.14 seconds. The old record was held by the Stanford Cardinal at the 2004 NCAA Div. 1 Championships.
Comparative splits of the old and new record:
2004 – Stanford – Benjamin Wildman-Tobriner (22.03), Peter Marshall (21.11), Andrew Schnell (21.49), Bobby O’Bryan (21.06) – 1:25.69
2014 – United States – Josh Schneider (21.87), Matt Grevers (21.02), Ryan Lochte (20.96), Darian Townsend (21.70) – 1:25.55
The Americans have been on a record-setting spree all week in the relays, largely due to the fact that they race these events so infrequently. We often see the records being held by collegiate swimmers as most of them were set at the 2000 and 2004 NCAA Div. 1 Championships, when these meets were contested in short course meters as opposed to their traditional short course yards formats.
Grever’s and Lochte’s splits are especially good for the morning, with Lochte being one of only three swimmers to post a sub-21 second split in the morning (Russia’s Evgeny Sedov led off the first-placed Russians’ relay in a 20.70, Italy’s Marco Orsi posted a 20.78 third leg on Italy’s third placed relay).
The United States will get an opportunity to break the record again tonight, and they’ll have plenty of competition to get them going. Russia did not use Vlad Morozov this morning, so the likely addition of Tom Shields and Jimmy Feigen will be necessary if the Americans want to challenge for another gold. Also available are Conor Dwyer and Matt McLean though Shields and Feigen would get the edge based on their short race specialties.
Lochte is turning into quite the sprinter since moving to Swimmac! Schneider can surely swim faster than that
I have to disagree..he won´t get speed to play with the big boys on 100 (Mcevoy, Adrian, Zetao, Magnussen, Manadou, Santana) andnowhere close on 50.. and based on what we are seeing here.. his extra speed is more like.. sprinting himself to a slow painful finish.. he should keep his endurance cause that is what keeps him.. if he tries to go as fast as the sprinters it won´t be enough for World level..
Hey Rafael , Manyi was not talking about Lochte being in the 100 free event !!! come on , stay alert and grounded with common sense . Lochte is far from being stupid ; and u know why Lochte was a bit painfull at the end of his races . U could at least recognize his valuable efforts but apparently u can’t do that . When Brazil will show up with somoene of his caliber ( and versatility in many events ) , ring my bell ; i am interested to see it .
MP back in the water at the new French world cup in Chartres next year!
It’s huge!
http://www.lequipe.fr/Natation/Actualites/Phelps-retour-a-chartres/520127
Good news ! he is stilll hungry for competing .
Schneider’s performance was bad in 21.87. He can definitely swim much faster in final.
He can surely get faster than that !
I don’t think bad is correct adjective. More like strategic.