World Championships, Day Four Finals: Zhang Yufei Pulls Ahead to Deliver China Mixed Medley Relay Gold

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Zhang Yufei -- Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

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World Championships, Day Four Finals: Zhang Yufei Pulls Ahead to Deliver China Mixed Medley Relay Gold

The pieces were in place for China to assemble a gold-medal caliber mixed medley relay. Qin Haiyang had emerged as the world’s premier sprint breaststroker, and Zhang Yufei had returned to top form to win a world title in the women’s 100 butterfly. Xu Jiayu, a world champion in 2017 and 2019 in the 100 backstroke, was close enough to his best form to handle that leg effectively, and China had several women’s 100 freestylers from which to pull.

The United States and Australia each had some talented relay participants, with Ryan Murphy and Kate Douglass of the U.S. and Kaylee McKeown of Australia having already won individual titles in Fukuoka. This was not going to be an easy task for the Chinese team, but each swimmer came through Wednesday evening to give their country its first international relay win since the 2021 Olympics and first at a World Championships since 2015.

On the opening leg, Murphy took the advantage with a 52.02 split, ahead of his 52.22 from the individual 100 back, but Xu also swam faster than he did in the individual race, touching in 52.42. McKeown, meanwhile, swam a time of 58.03 on her leg, beating the remaining female backstrokers but coming up a half-second off her winning time from the individual event (57.53).

Returning for his second medal race of the evening session, Qin took command on breaststroke, splitting 57.31 to easily outpace the next-best swimmer in the field, American Nic Fink (58.19). But the work was not done yet. Zhang needed a strong butterfly split, likely extending the lead on American Torri Huske, in order to give Cheng Yujie a shot to hold on against charging freestylers.

Zhang delivered big time. She split 55.69, more than one second ahead of anyone else in the field. Huske, the 2022 world champion in the 100 fly and bronze medalist this year, had a disappointing leg for the U.S., her 58.19 split nowhere near her individual time of 56.61 and a full two seconds behind her flat-start season best of 56.14. The butterfly took the U.S. out of the gold-medal hunt.

But a new threat emerged: Australia. After Zac Stubblety-Cook’s 58.84 breaststroke split, Matt Temple surged through the field on butterfly to the tune of a 50.63 split. When the field transitioned to freestyle, Temple had moved into second place, with China just two seconds ahead.

Australia anchored with Shayna Jack, who went 51.66 on the 400 free relay and 51.63 in prelims, allowing world champion Mollie O’Callaghan the rest of the evening off after she set a world record on her way to gold in the 200 free. Jack came through for Australia and split 51.53, a top-10 split all-time and only ever eclipsed by fellow Australians Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell.

In the end, it was not enough as Cheng split 53.15 to hang on by just under a half-second. After challenging world-record pace for much of the race, China finished in 3:38.57 for gold, the country’s fourth top honor of the meet after previous individual wins by Qin (including one in the final just before this relay) and Zhang’s 100 fly. “This is our time,” Zhang said. “It is a great and beautiful time.”

Australia, buoyed by Jack’s heroics, came in second at 3:39.03. ” I think being part of this relay, you’re always going to have your challenges in chasing people down,” Jack said. “You don’t know where you’re going to end up. Aa I’m diving in, I was told, ‘Just don’t panic. If people are in front or if people are coming behind, just swim my own race.’ That’s exactly what I did, and I’m really proud of being able to step it up again and come away with 51.5. I’m really proud.”

The U.S. held on for bronze, with Douglass producing a sensational 51.79 split anchoring, the fastest-ever split recorded by the United States.

“We put together what was the best lineup on paper. I think we learn from every race, and we’ll be better next time. I don’t think it’s for any lack of effort. I think everyone went out there and did their best,” Murphy said. “It feels like we’re getting into our groove each day. We’re halfway through the meet and we had a lot of great swims, a lot of great performances to come and we’re looking forward to that.”

The Netherlands finished fourth, about one-and-a-half seconds behind the U.S., in 3:41.81, with Nyls Korstanje and Marrit Steenbergen providing strong finishing splits to move their team up from sixth place. Great Britain was a further one-and-a-half seconds behind for fifth.

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