By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
2024 Short Course World Championships
- December 10-15, 2024
- Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Roster Index
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Pick’em
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Prelims Live Recap: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
- Finals Live Recap: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
Avoiding the errors of the mixed 200 free relay, the Americans for the first time this meet came out of prelims with the top-seeded relay thanks in part to a 1:40.88 leadoff split from the new-and-improved Shaine Casas.
Casas will return for finals, as will anchor and American individual entry Kieran Smith (1:42.89 in prelims). They will be joined in finals by possibly the two best 200 freestylers on the roster: Luke Hobson and Carson Foster. Hobson was the Olympic bronze medalist in long course in this event and is very good in short course as well.
With a 6:51.69 in prelims, the Americans would need to find 7.5 seconds in finals to break the World Record that Team USA set in 2022. The Foster and Hobson additions are probably good for about 6.75 of those seconds, and the rest will be on Smith to split a 1:41 on a roll in finals.
It seems unlikely that any other relay has the upgrades to catch the Americans so it’s a battle for silver. Australia, the #2 seeds, are using the same lineup as they did in prelims. They do have some time to drop from those legs: for example Edward Sommerville anchored in 1:42.01 but is the top seed in the individual 200 free at 1:40.64.
The 3rd-seeded Italians swapped their last two legs, dropping a 1:43.8 and 1:44.1.
The other big news
Men’s 800 Free Relay Lineups, Sorted by Seed Time
| Lane | Team | Swimmer 1 | Swimmer 2 | Swimmer 3 | Swimmer 4 | Seed Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | USA | Luke Hobson | Carson Foster | Shaine Casas | Kieran Smith | 6:51.69 |
| 5 | AUS | Maximillian Giuliani | Edward Sommerville | Harrison Turner | Elijah Winnington | 6:53.50 |
| 3 | ITA | Filippo Megli | Manuel Frigo | Carlos D’Ambrosio | Alberto Razzetti | 6:53.89 |
| 2 | ESP | Luis Dominguez | Miguel Perez-Godoy Brageli | Nacho Campos Beas | Sergio de Celis Montalban | 6:56.04 |
| 6 | CHN | Tao Guannan | Xu Yizhou | Liu Wudi | He Yubo | 6:55.96 |
| 7 | GER | Rafael Miroslaw | Kaii Winkler | Timo Sorgius | Florian Wellbrock | 6:57.18 |
| 1 | NAB | Dmitrii Zhavoronkov | Aleksandr Shchegolev | Aleksei Sudarev | Roman Akimov | 6:57.59 |
| 8 | JPN | Tatsuya Murasa | Kazushi Imafuku | Kaito Tabuchi | Daiki Yanagawa | 7:01.23 |
Men’s 800 Free Relay Lineups, Sorted by Lane
| Lane | Team | Swimmer 1 | Swimmer 2 | Swimmer 3 | Swimmer 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NAB | Dmitrii Zhavoronkov | Aleksandr Shchegolev | Aleksei Sudarev | Roman Akimov |
| 2 | ESP | Luis Dominguez | Miguel Perez-Godoy Brageli | Nacho Campos Beas | Sergio de Celis Montalban |
| 3 | ITA | Filippo Megli | Manuel Frigo | Carlos D’Ambrosio | Alberto Razzetti |
| 4 | USA | Luke Hobson | Carson Foster | Shaine Casas | Kieran Smith |
| 5 | AUS | Maximillian Giuliani | Edward Sommerville | Harrison Turner | Elijah Winnington |
| 6 | CHN | Tao Guannan | Xu Yizhou | Liu Wudi | He Yubo |
| 7 | GER | Rafael Miroslaw | Kaii Winkler | Timo Sorgius | Florian Wellbrock |
| 8 | JPN | Tatsuya Murasa | Kazushi Imafuku | Kaito Tabuchi | Daiki Yanagawa |
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Top-Seeded Americans Bring in Two More Big Names for Men’s 4×200 Free Relay Final (LINEUPS)