Australians Set Meet Record in 400 Free Relay; USA Downs World Junior Record

Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia Ltd.

MAUI, Hawaii, August 29.

The Australian foursome of Lucy McJannett, Shayna Jack, Sophie Taylor and Chelsea Gillett powered their way past the Americans down the stretch to win the 400 free relay in a meet record time of 3:39.73 at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships. That swim smashed the previous mark of 3:40.97 set by Team USA in 2010.

It did not, however, beat the World Junior Record of 3:41.40 set by Russia at the World Junior Championships last summer since Sophie Taylor is listed as born in 1996. Girls, to be considered for World Junior Records this year, must be born in 1997 and earlier.

The U.S., however, with a second-place 3:40.14 had a team made up completely of those listed as born in 1997 and 1998 (Stanzi Moseley, Amy Bilquist, Katie Drabot and Katrina Konopka) and is eligible to break the WJR set by the Russian squad last summer.

This is the second high profile potential WJR at a junior meet that wound up being nullified due to a female swimmer being considered FINA-18 even though she was 17 at the time of the meet. China’s Qiu Yuhan, Shen Duo, He Yun and Zhang Yufei posted a 3:41.19 in this event at the Youth Olympic Games, but missed out on the WJR because He Yun was born Sept. 12, 1996, thus turning 18 by the end of the year.

Once again, the World Junior Record system continues to have some serious confusion attached, and could take years before a true set of WJRs is flushed out. Yes, Katie Ledecky is doing her best to eliminate many of the events from question by setting World Records that stand as WJRs as well, but there are plenty of events where the actual world best in the event is several seconds faster than the one currently recognized by FINA as the record.

Russia’s Splits:

Mariia Baklakova – 55.05
Rozaliya Nasretdinova – 55.35
Valeriia Kolotushkina – 55.45
Daria S. Ustinova – 55.55

Japan (3:45.53), Canada (3:45.79), China (3:46.54), Mexico (3:53.27) and Fiji (4:18.20) also had team-scoring times.

Results

 Event 23  Women 4x100 LC Meter Freestyle Relay
==================================================================================
  Jr. Pan Pac: M 3:40.97  08/28/2010USA, USA
                          L Neal, J Tosky, M Schaefer, C Chenault
    Team                             Seed     Finals  FINA Points
==================================================================================
                                === A - Final ===                                 
 
  1 AUS  'A'                      3:41.76    3:39.73M  894   18  
     1) McJannett, Lucy 98            2) r:0.27 Jack, Shayna 98       
     3) r:0.31 Taylor, Sophie 96      4) r:0.30 Gillett, Chelsea 97   
    r:+0.73  26.64        55.07 (55.07)
        1:20.90 (25.83)     1:49.73 (54.66)
        2:16.65 (26.92)     2:45.40 (55.67)
        3:11.42 (26.02)     3:39.73 (54.33)
  2 USA  'A'                      3:41.50    3:40.14M  889   14  
     1) Moseley, Stanzi 98            2) r:0.25 Bilquist, Amy 97      
     3) r:0.24 Drabot, Katie 97       4) r:0.61 Konopka, Katrina 97   
    r:+0.75  27.16        55.66 (55.66)
        1:22.00 (26.34)     1:50.66 (55.00)
        2:16.71 (26.05)     2:45.12 (54.46)
        3:11.37 (26.25)     3:40.14 (55.02)
  3 Japan  'A-JPN'                3:42.81    3:45.53   827   12  
     1) Mochida, Sachi 99             2) r:0.17 Ikee, Rikako 00       
     3) r:0.31 Ito, Haruno 99         4) r:0.18 Makino, Hiroko 99     
    r:+0.70  27.17        56.22 (56.22)
        1:22.98 (26.76)     1:51.72 (55.50)
        2:19.58 (27.86)     2:49.07 (57.35)
        3:16.49 (27.42)     3:45.53 (56.46)
  4 Canada  'A-CAN'               3:47.23    3:45.79   824   10  
     1) Harvey, Mary-Sophie 99        2) r:0.44 Lam, Heather 98       
     3) r:0.05 Margitai, Lili 97      4) r:0.23 Aitchison, Alexndra 96
    r:+0.74  27.21        56.42 (56.42)
        1:23.36 (26.94)     1:52.95 (56.53)
        2:19.75 (26.80)     2:49.95 (57.00)
        3:16.42 (26.47)     3:45.79 (55.84)
  5 China  'A-CHN'                3:47.58    3:46.54   816    8  
     1) Zhu, Menghui 99               2) r:+0.00 Zhu, Yifei 98        
     3) r:0.56 Li, Tete 98            4) r:0.54 Wang, Siqi 98         
    r:+0.72  26.74        56.02 (56.02)
        1:22.75 (26.73)     1:52.36 (56.34)
        2:19.86 (27.50)     2:49.38 (57.02)
        3:16.94 (27.56)     3:46.54 (57.16)
  6 Mexico  'A'                   3:50.93    3:53.27   747    6  
     1) Revilak Fonseca, Ana Sofia 97 2) r:0.46 Gonzalez Hermosnika 95
     3) r:0.46 Richaud Leyva, anda 96 4) r:0.29 Barba Tinoco, Ebeth 96
    r:+0.72  27.60        57.67 (57.67)
        1:25.28 (27.61)     1:56.54 (58.87)
        2:23.97 (27.43)     2:54.37 (57.83)
        3:22.24 (27.87)     3:53.27 (58.90)
  7 Fiji Islands  'A-FIJ'         4:08.42    4:18.20   551    4  
     1) Smith, Brooke 97              2) r:0.35 Pene, Iris 98         
     3) r:0.48 Blake, Yolani 99       4) r:0.55 Naivalu, Adi Kimere 99
    r:+0.72  30.19    1:03.78 (1:03.78)
        1:34.53 (30.75)   2:08.83 (1:05.05)
        2:38.63 (29.80)   3:12.84 (1:04.01)
        3:44.25 (31.41)   4:18.20 (1:05.36)
 -- USA  'B'                      3:48.04   x3:50.54        
     1) Bayer, Cassidy 99             2) r:0.65 Allen, Emily 97       
     3) r:0.39 Adams, Claire 98       4) r:0.49 Galyer, Danielle 95   
    r:+0.72  28.35        58.42 (58.42)
        1:26.11 (27.69)     1:54.96 (56.54)
        2:22.13 (27.17)   3:50.54 (1:55.58)
 -- Japan  'B-JPN'                3:49.77   x3:53.02        
     1) Konishi, Anna 96              2) r:0.33 Shirai, Rio 99        
     3) r:0.31 Sato, Chinatsu 99      4) r:0.06 Sakai, Natsumi 01     
    r:+0.80  28.34        59.00 (59.00)
        1:26.73 (27.73)     1:56.75 (57.75)
        2:24.26 (27.51)     2:54.84 (58.09)
        3:22.53 (27.69)     3:53.02 (58.18)
 
                                  === Finals ===                                  
 
 -- Canada  'B-CAN'               3:50.15   x3:51.75        
     1) Buscher, Alexandra 97         2) r:0.48 Ludlow, Danica 96     
     3) r:0.16 Meklensek, Leah 99     4) r:0.28 Glover, Mackenzie 98  
    r:+0.71  28.31        57.50 (57.50)
        1:25.77 (28.27)     1:55.81 (58.31)
        2:23.20 (27.39)     2:53.69 (57.88)
        3:51.75 (58.06)

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