Mallory Comerford Splits 51.0 to Give Team USA Gold Medal in 4×100 Free Relay

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Women’s 4×100 Free Relay

The United States saw a huge split from Mallory Comerford on the third leg of the 4×100 free relay on Tuesday night in Hangzhou, as Comerford split a 51.09 to blow by the Netherlands to give Louisville teammate Kelsi Dahlia the lead on the anchor leg. Team USA won the final with a 3:27.78, a little off the world record of 3:26.53 from the Netherlands in 2014.

The United States held off the Netherlands as Dahlia split a 51.40 to hold off Ranomi Kromowidjojo (50.77), who had the fastest split of anyone in the final. Olivia Smoliga (52.71), Lia Neal (52.58), Comerford (51.09) and Dahlia (51.40) won the first gold medal for the Americans at the 2018 FINA World Short Course Championships.

Dahlia (on winning relay gold): “Relays are so fun, and … these girls I really trusted them. I was happy to be the anchor, and it’s great to start off the meet with a relay gold. Olivia and Mallory set the tone tonight. They had great swims earlier in the meet, so we were fired up.”

Smoliga (on swimming on a relay with former NCAA rivals): “It’s an honor representing Team USA and being able to compete with these girls that we’ve known each other for so long. We were joking around that it’s kind of like a collegiate meet. We swam together in college for a couple of years, so it was really fun to come together for the USA.”

The Dutch took the lead at the halfway point with Femke Heemskerk splitting a 50.93, which was the second fastest split of anyone in the field. But Maaike de Waard was run down by Comerford on the third leg as the former split a 53.13. The Netherlands took the silver medal at 3:28.02 with Kim Busch (53.19), Heemskerk (50.93), de Waard (53.13) and Kromowidjojo (50.77).

Those two countries were well in front of the rest of the field as China got its first women’s medal of the championships with a bronze here in the relay. Zhu Menghui (52.58), Yang Junxuan (52.28), Liu Xiaohan (53.26) and Wang Jingzhuo (52.80) swam for the Chinese as they held off Japan (3:31.68) and Russia (3:32.48) for the bronze.

Germany (3:33.27), Hong Kong (3:40.25) and Turkey (3:41.25) also swam in the final.

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