The United States team of Madison Kennedy (24.05), Mallory Comerford (23.26), Kelsi Dahlia (23.37), and Erika Brown (23.33) opened the last day’s final session with a new championship and American record in the 4×50 free relay. Touching in 1:34.03, the U.S. team beat out the Netherlands, who were the former Championship record holders and are the current world record holders.
Brown (on swimming the anchor on a championship relay): “It feels great. It’s such a great group of girls, and I’m just really thankful to be part of Team USA here.”
The Dutch put up a strong fight, with Ranomi Kromowidjojo (23.60) and Femke Heemskerk (23.32) leading the Dutch over the rest of the field for the first 100. However, splits from Kim Busch (23.84) and Valerie van Roon (23.79) weren’t enough for the Dutch to hold off the Americans, ultimately finishing in second in 1:34.55.
Back in third were the Australians in 1:36.34.
When asked about winning a medal with the team, Emily Seebohm said: “It’s always fun. I just really try to enjoy it because you don’t get many opportunities to race with these girls and race against the best in the world.”
Photo Courtesy:
The first of our 10 finals this evening – The Women’s 4x50m Freestyle Relay! See all the action live on ? https://t.co/bEozhdW5qV #FINAHangzhou2018 pic.twitter.com/72RTxO6Ihl
— FINA (@fina1908) December 16, 2018
