FINA World Swimming Championships (Duncan Scott)
 |
| Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant |
Day Eight Finals (Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay)
Duncan Scott split 46.14 as he surged past Nathan Adrian in the final metres as Great Britain won the men’s 4x100m medley relay to inflict defeat upon the United States for the first time.
Adrian appeared to be on the verge of victory but Scott swam the second-fastest split in history as Britain won in 3mins 28.10secs – a new European record – to upgrade from the silver medal they won in Budapest in 2017.
Only Jason Lezak has ever gone quicker with his 46.06 split during the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
In contrast, Adrian split 47.60, the third slowest in the entire field as the United States came in second in 3:28.45 with Russia third in 3:28.81.
It was a third gold medal for Adam Peaty after his 50-100m breaststroke double in which he became the first man in history to go inside 57 seconds for the latter.
Luke Greenbank, bronze medallist in the 200m backstroke, swam 53.95 to hand over in seventh to Peaty who split 57.20 to guide the quartet into first.
James Guy then went head to head with Caeleb Dressel, who was looking for his seventh gold medal of the week, the American splitting 49.28 in the fly and handing over to Adrian with a 1.11-sec advantage over the British.
appeared the USA had victory in their sights but that was without reckoning with Scott, who has been in the spotlight in and out of the water this week, the 200m freestyle bronze medallist now standing on top of the podium.
Scott said: “I think when you get to this level, times are not relevant and it’s just down to racing at the end of the day. I got put in a great position, I was diving right in on Adrian’s hip.“I’ve been there many times before and on the blocks put me in an incredible position and I just have to try and execute a good race plan and no I can’t say I thought I had that split in me but I’m so speechless that I’ve been able to put that race together.”
Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant
The University of Stirling swimmer added: “Build my race down the last 50 and bring my legs in the last. My strongest aspect is bringing it back on the 200 freestyle so stepping down to the 100 I’ve got to try and use my strengths. I took over in a great position and how fortunate we were to be next to the Americans as well who were breaking the race.
“Moved over and got a nice big wave down the first 50 and then I just used the adrenaline to come home. It’s down to the effort of the boys in front of me who put me in that position.
“As Adam said, we are quite a young team – I think he is probably the oldest at 24 – so we have got plenty more years together so this has been a great stepping stone for us and we are looking forward to next year.”
Adrian, who has been undergoing treatment for testicular cancer, said he knew Duncan Scott would be coming.
“I knew he was going to be there. I saw he had a great 200 free, great 200IM but scratched out the 100 free so no-one really knew what he could do. That last 15m – it’s tough, it’s tough. I was trying to be strong, I was trying to hold on but this time I couldn’t do it.”
Peaty added: “I just took it out easy, I knew the Americans would have a little bit of a lead at the takeover.
“I dived in and hit the referees glasses off so that kind of threw me off for the first metre. Then I just got back into my own zone so it’s stuff like that it always going to happen – you never know how close they are going to stand at the edge of the pool.
“Then took it out fairly aggressive. For me the most important thing is I know I have got a bit more in there, a little bit more pace and I think the Olympics will be a different race so I think it’s going to be different and all ready for what comes with a bunch of four lads who are young but gathering experience and yeah I think we are going to smash it.”
Of being in a team, he added: “This is incredible! I thought Jimmy (James Guy) could hold his ground and as soon as Duncan dived in I thought ‘we’re going to get bronze’.
“With 25m to go I was jumping up and down like never before and the last 10 metres he just got his head down and took him out.
“For me, that’s better than Olympic gold and anything else, as when you do it as a team, and the fact the Americans have never been beaten in this event I don’t think, it’s just amazing.”
Ryan Murphy led the team off, a 52.92 leg seeing him hand over in second place. The triple Olympic champion was less than impressed with his effort although the quartet all said defeat would give them greater motivation for Tokyo 2020.
He said: “I had a pretty embarrassing performance. I was the first guy in the water and it kind of put us in a hole from the beginning.
“I thought Andrew did well, Caeleb did well, Nathan did really well. We just didn’t put them in the right spot. When we put him in a position where he is half a body length ahead and Duncan Scott can draft off of him for 75, that’s not the position we need to be in. I need to be better to get us out in the lead so that doesn’t happen at the Olympics.”
Murphy handed over to Andrew Wilson who swam a 58.65 breaststroke leg but was up against the might of Peaty.
“I think all of us are finding places in our swims where we could be better,” he said.
“It was like three tenths difference between us and GB and that was three tenths slower than I was on the mixed medley so I think all of us are finding places where it’s on us. But we just all need to be better and will be next year. It’s frustrating now but fuel for next year.”
It was not a golden end to the meet for Dressel who ended the programme with six gold and two silver medals as eh became the first swimmer to win eight medals at a single world championships.
“I am happy with my performances but I know I can be better and I now I am going to have to be better leading into next year.
“Part of me is very happy, part of me wants to cry that I am done with it. This is a lot of stress: you can see – I’ve got pimples on my face from the stress of the meet, I’m probably losing some hair, it all comes with it.“Our goal here is just to get our hand on the wall first and swim fast. I am not sitting in my room flipping through my medals, I really don’t care.“I have one less than 17 – that doesn’t bug me one bit. I should have been better on the relays so we missed out on two relays where we got silver, we are not happy with that as a team. We have to better next year and we will be better, simple as that.”
No comments:
Post a Comment