United States Men Crush World Junior Record in 4×100 Free Relay With Stellar Splits From Urlando, Chaney

Jake Magahey and Luca Urlando celebrate the 4x100 free relay gold medal. Photo Courtesy: Budapest 2019 / FINA

World Junior Championships (USA World Junior Record)

Budapest, Day 1

The United States men broke the world junior record in the 4×100 free relay on the first night of the 2019 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Budapest with a 3:15.80. Jake Magahey (49.51), Luca Urlando (48.73), Adam Chaney (48.64) and Carson Foster (48.92) propelled the Americans to the record as they also broke the Championships Record that the Australians set in 2013 at 3:16.96. Russia (3:16.26) and Italy (3:16.29) were also under the old records.

The Italians were leading after 200 meters thanks to a stellar start from Federica Burdisso (49.38) and Thomas Ceccon (48.59). USA used arguably its best leg in Chaney on the third leg as he went right past Mario Nicotra (49.65) to give Foster some clean water.

Foster was able to hold off Italy’s anchor leg Stefano Nicetto (48.67) and a strong push from Russia’s anchor Andrei Minakov (47.82) as the Ohio native held on to win the gold medal, and added a lane line celebration to finish off the first night of competition.

Minakov’s stellar anchor leg was not enough to catch the Americans as they collected the silver medal with the likes of Arsenii Chivilev (50.23), Aleksandr Shchegolev (48.54), Egor Pavlov (49.67) and Minakov (47.82).

In historic context, the junior USA team was travelling swifter than the 3:16.53 at which the USA senior quartet of Chris Jacobs, Troy Dalbey, Tom Jager and Matt Biondi (47.81) claimed Olympic gold in a then world record at Seoul 1988 and just a touch away from the 1995 world standard established by David Fox, Joe Hudepohl, Jon Olsen and and Gary Hall, Jr. in 1995.

The top three teams in Budapest today were well ahead of the rest of the field with Canada (3:19.10) placing fourth. There were rumors during the race that Canada and Australia would be disqualified but they were not, despite Canada’s James Lebuke registering a -0.02 reaction time and Australia’s Alex Quach registering a -0.03 takeover. FINA allows -0.04 so the takeovers were legal.

Brazil (3:20.17), Australia (3:20.48), Ukraine (3:21.07) and Hungary (3:22.85) also swam in the final.

World Junior Record: ~~3:16.96, Australia (2013)~~
Championships Record: ~~3:16.96, Australia (2013)~~

1	USA	3:15.80, WJ, CR	Magahey, 49.51,	Urlando, 48.73,	Chaney, 48.64,	Foster, 48.92
2	RUS	3:16.26	Chivilev, 50.23,	Shchegolev, 48.54,	Pavlov, 49.67,	Minakov, 47.82
3	ITA	3:16.29	Burdisso, 49.38,	Ceccon, 48.59,	Nicotra, 49.65,	Nicetto, 48.67
4	CAN	3:19.10	Liendo, 49.53,	Lebuke, 50.02,	Knox, 49.68,	Pratt, 49.87
5	BRA	3:20.17	Sanots, 50.44,	Bondra, 49.75,	Tomiyama, 50.74,	Stein, 49.24
6	AUS	3:20.48	McDonald, 51.04,	Quach, 49.35,	Edwards-Smith, 50.67,	Neill, 49.42
7	UKR	3:21.07	Romaniuk, 50.56,	Laktin, 50.81,	Linnyk, 50.29,	Bukhov, 49.41
8	HUN	3:22.85	Szabados, 50.69,	Pap, 50.43,	Ulrich, 50.51,

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Charlie Alvarez

4 years ago

Great start for the USA Juniors!! Keep it up folks!!