{"id":533953,"date":"2023-07-27T18:21:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T01:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=533953"},"modified":"2023-07-27T18:31:26","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T01:31:26","slug":"world-championships-great-britain-u-s-to-face-off-in-mens-800-free-relay-heats-full-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/world-championships-great-britain-u-s-to-face-off-in-mens-800-free-relay-heats-full-lineups\/","title":{"rendered":"World Championships: Great Britain, U.S. to Face Off in Men’s 800 Free Relay Heats (Full Lineups)"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Championships: Great Britain, U.S. to Face Off in Men’s 800 Free Relay Heats (Full Lineups)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The two favored teams in the men’s 800 freestyle relay will race side-by-side in heat two of the event in Friday morning’s qualifying. The Americans will be in lane four, with\u00a0Drew Kibler<\/strong> leading off after he spearheaded last year’s gold-medal-winning squad, while Britain swims most of its full squad in lane five.<\/p>\n

View the full start lists for the heats<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the Brits,\u00a0Joe Litchfield<\/strong> handles leadoff duties, and he will be followed by three swimmers expected to return at night, all individual-medal winners so far in Fukuoka:\u00a0Duncan Scott<\/strong>,\u00a0Tom Dean<\/strong> and\u00a0Matt Richards<\/strong>. Richards and Dean went 1-2 in the 200 free<\/a> while Scott and Dean placed 2-3 behind\u00a0Leon Marchand<\/strong> in Thursday evening’s 200 IM<\/a>.\u00a0James Guy<\/strong> is expected to join this group in the final. Guy has yet to race in Fukuoka, but he also has the 100 fly prelims Friday morning, so he will rest the relay.<\/p>\n

The U.S. will follow Kibler with a trio of World Championships rookies:\u00a0Baylor Nelson<\/strong>,\u00a0Henry McFadden<\/strong> and\u00a0Jake Mitchell<\/strong>. The fastest of these four swimmers is likely to join\u00a0Luke Hobson<\/strong>,\u00a0Kieran Smith<\/strong> and\u00a0Carson Foster<\/strong> in the final.<\/p>\n

The favorite for the bronze medal, Australia, goes with\u00a0Flynn Southam<\/strong>,\u00a0Elijah Winnington<\/strong>,\u00a0Kai Taylor<\/strong> and\u00a0Thomas Neill<\/strong> in prelims. We’ll see how many of those men return for the final, but\u00a0Alexander Graham<\/strong> is a possible addition.<\/p>\n

Brazil’s\u00a0relay features 200 free Olympic bronze medalist\u00a0Fernando Scheffer<\/strong> plus distance ace\u00a0Guilherme Costa<\/strong> while France will try to qualify for the final without\u00a0Leon Marchand<\/strong>, although the three-time champion would be a likely candidate to join the finals relay provided France qualifies.<\/p>\n

Hwang Sunwoo<\/strong>, the bronze medalist behind Richards and Dean in the 200 free, leads off for a South Korean team that could surprise medal candidate after\u00a0Lee Hojoon<\/strong> also swam in the Worlds final earlier this week.\u00a0Lukas Martens<\/strong>, the bronze medalist in the 400 free, leads off for Germany while Hungary’s team is bookended by 100 free finalist\u00a0Nandor Nemeth<\/strong> and open water star\u00a0Kristof Rasovszky<\/strong>.<\/p>\n