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For the first time in the history of the FINA World Championships, neither Team USA or Australia will medal in the men’s 400-meter free relay after a shocking turn of events at the 2015 FINA World Championships.
Since Team USA won the first men’s 400-meter free relay world title in 1973, either USA or Australia has been on the medal podium.
That changes after USA (11th) and Australia (12th) finished outside the top eight.
USA’s Jimmy Feigen (49.21), Anthony Ervin (49.69), Matt Grevers (48.67) and Conor Dwyer (48.44) posted a 3:16.01 for 11th.
Australia’s Tommaso D’Orsogna (49.75), Kyle Chalmers (47.92), Matt Abood (48.78) and Ashley Delaney (49.89) finished 12th in 3:16.34.
Russia’s Andrey Grechin (48.42), Danila Izotov (48.08), Vlad Morozov (48.00) and Alex Sukhorukov (47.96) paced prelims in 3:12.46.
Brazil (3:13.99), Italy (3:14.44), France (3:14.53), Japan (3:14.76), Canada (3:15.00), Poland (3:15.18) and China (3:15.47) will battle for the gold medal tonight.
SCHEDULED EVENTS
- Women’s 100 fly
- Men’s 400 free
- Women’s 200 IM
- Men’s 50 fly
- Women’s 400 free
- Men’s 100 breast
- Women’s 400 free relay
- Men’s 400 free relay
Actually AUS officially finished 13th due to USA & GER tying for 11th and has subsequently failed to gain automatic qualification of this relay for Rio. They can now only hope to qualify “via the back door” via posting a time between now and the cut-off date for qualification that is amongst the 4 fastest of all nations that have not already qualified a team.
Will this be the only AUS relay that suffers this fate ? Given the very questionable form-line of the AUS M4x200 & the sub-standard fly component of the M4xMED; they may not be orphans.
Not surprising that NCAA Title IX has finally caught up for the lack of male sprinters in the USA and lack of males in Australia wanting to be in swimming. 11th Place is unheard of for any US Men’s 400 Free Relay. Who wants to compete in competitive swimming, an amateau sport, from age group and secondary school into the university competition-unless you get $25,000 USD for setting a World Record, go pro and get endorsements or a trust fund!!
Never assume
Swim your beat always