The Russian team opened the fifth night of finals with a win in the 4×50 medley relay, just missing the championship record by .03 and touching exactly one tenth of a second off the world record. The team of Kliment Kolesnikov (22.87), Oleg Kostin (25.36), Mikhail Vekovishchev (22.09), and Evgeny Rylov (20.22) posted a time of 1:30.54 to grab the win.
That just beat out the American team of Ryan Murphy (22.73), Michael Andrew (26.16), Caeleb Dressel (21.70), and Ryan Held (20.31). Murphy had the Americans in first after the backstroke, but the U.S. team fell back to fourth after Andrew’s breaststroke leg and couldn’t recover their lead over the final 100. Their time does establish a new American record in the event. In third was Brazil in 1:31.49.
Notably, last night’s 50 free World Champion Vlad Morozov was absent from the relay. With a 20.33 flat start 50 last night, his anchor leg could have potentially pushed the Russian team past the world record.
Dive in first, come out fourth in a single 50? MA, you sucked