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Women’s 4×100 FR Finals Lineups: Douglass and Zhang in, Hinds and Comerford Out

2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

The finals lineups for the women’s 4×100 free relay are out, and a few notable decisions were made.

First off, the U.S. coaches put in Kate Douglass and Erika Brown in favor of Mallory Comerford and Natalie Hinds on the relay.They will be swimming alongside Torri Huske and Claire Curzan, who were rested for finals. The Brown decision made sense, as she split a 53.29 on the prelims relay, the fastest on her team. Douglass was 54.19 leading off compared to Comerford and Hinds’s 53.86 and 53.89 relay starts respectively. Given that Hinds and Comerford have more international relay experience than Douglass, this decision comes as a surprise to some. However, Douglass is going third instead of leading off, which gives her a chance to shave a few tenths off her prelims flat start time.

China decided to go all-in on this relay, putting in Zhang Yufei and Yang Junxuan, who have flat start PBs of 52.90 and 53.02 respectively. Last year, the two swimmers were not put on this relay and finished seventh at the Olympics, which caused controversy given how much potential China could have had if they were on.

Canada put in Penny Oleksiak and Maggie MacNeil, while Great Britain put in Abbie Wood, which were both expected decisions. The Aussies are going their two fastest swimmers on the front and back end, with Mollie O’Callaghan leading off and Shayna Jack anchoring.

Full Relay Lineups:

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sofia
2 years ago

i wish they kept comerford and hinds! so sad they swapped the two of them out, the girls should have stayed

Tomek
2 years ago

I think it was the right decision, i do see Douglass going faster tonight

Observer
2 years ago

Wonder how much having her coach there as the head coach came into play

Ray Woods
Reply to  Observer
2 years ago

Everything, sad to say, it always happens

ArtVanDeLegh10
Reply to  Observer
2 years ago

It’s possible the coaching staff explained to the swimmers in prelims how they would be evaluating the prelim swims.

1. They’ll subtract X amount from the lead off swimmers time.
2. For relays splits-they either use the actual time the swimmer went or they’ll subtract the reaction times and use whoever was faster ‘in the pool.’

I know this has been done before so it’s possible everyone knew exactly how the coaching staff would pick the relay.

alexslavco
2 years ago
  1. Australia
  2. Canada
  3. China
  4. USA

But it will be really close between 2-4

alexslavco
Reply to  alexslavco
2 years ago

Okay, China is going to have a very hard time on this Champs, but nice battle between Canada and USA all the way to the finish.

Toby
2 years ago

Epic

swimfan27
2 years ago

They should have kept Hinds. She’s proven herself. This seems like Desorbo favoritism to be honest.

Yikes
Reply to  swimfan27
2 years ago

Was kinda thinking the same thing….

Coachymccoachface
Reply to  swimfan27
2 years ago

I think 54.0 is better than 53.8 relay split

Observer
Reply to  Coachymccoachface
2 years ago

Yeah but how about the 54.19 she went

mds
Reply to  Observer
2 years ago

still better than 53.8 relay split

Mr. Pancake
Reply to  swimfan27
2 years ago

Split faster than Hinds did this morning… so… your assumption was kinda BS.

anon
2 years ago

There’s no clear answer for the US so fastest in the water was the fairest way to decide imo

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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