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FINA World Swimming Championships (Duncan Scott)
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.
“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.”
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Great swim ?
Awesome. xx ??
The US weakness in this meet: “the relays”….
Hey Sun me winner too
Awesome
Betsy Perry Joe Stott
Shaheen Alghofari shook
Betsy Perry madness Scott got fastest free relay time ever wow
Fastetest split ever? Has to be near I guess
Davide Luchina 2nd fastest split
Danilo Trias what’s that? Is it possible something like 46.06?
Davide Luchina Jason Lezak has the fastest split, 46.06 I think
Davide Luchina leziak has fastest. Can’t remember but Rodney Gaines said it during broadcast
Who is Rodney?
Wasn’t lezak’s split 46.16?
Look at Adam Peaty’s build. His arm is twice in size and diameter than Duncan a a Scott
Nope, just checked it’s 46.06 sorry
Peaty is Ridiculous! Took GB from 7th to 1st. Just silly
Danilo Trias with “only” 57.2
If they had a good backstroker, they’d smash the wr and peaty would swim faster ’cause he wouldn’t dive into these waves
FAAANTAAAASTIC!
Amazing swim by the Brits???
Is Duncan Scott the guy who got left out of a Scotland squad because he wasn’t a team player? Hmmm
Back it up. You shouldn’t make that kind of punk comment without backing it up. Besides, I say anyone with a name like Duncan Scott has got to be a stand-up guy!
Andrew Webber except Commonwealth games, there’s no Scotland squad, and he was here in gold coast
Julien Debris Think it might have been a training camp tbh, sounded pretty harsh anyway
Daniela Montesinos
Carolina Herrera wow
Frederik Møller hvem er dressel
Affou Adlouni den er av
Han tager verdensrekorden snart
Affou Adlouni Dressel er ham der gik 49.2 på butterfly
Jaja men vi snakker fri nu haha
det er ret vildsomt
Frederik Møller jaa haha det også ret vildt bæstet
Affou Adlouni kig Ruslands fly svømmer, han er 02 er
Frederik Møller jaa men aldrig stol på russer ?
Unbelievable swim! Congrats
What a great swim from young Duncan Scott Just amazing to watch ??????
So proud of you guys♥️
Manda ??
Rovitr ra duncan zan Adrian leee ?
Tokony Dressel NL deh leh bandy 2e taminy 100pap iny sa miuh fahafiry no pap
Mety tratra ihany fa 46’1 ge lty io eeh ?
Omg Mara Guevara
“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.”
Alain Bernard of France was major contributor to Jason’s 46.06 as he allowed Jason to draft off him for 100 meters. Jason’s PB for the 100 from the gun is 47.58 at 2008 Olympic Trials. Allowing a half second for a rolling start, his best time was a 47.08. The only way he could have gone 46.06 was because Bernard pulled him along during that final leg.
What a great race for the Poms!
Awesome Swim!
awesome swim by Duncan Scott! reminded me of Lezak’s epic race in same event!
The changing of the guard is happening for men. The 20-24 year old are ready to replace the over 29 year old. They are the next generation of swimmers. Adrian, Grevers, Laszlo Cseh, David Verraszto, etc have served their time and probably should let the next generation shine.
The changing of the guard is not happening for women yet. The 25-29 year old are still doing well. The next generation has just come out and has not matured yet. The changing of the guard will happen in Paris Olympics when the under 20 year old grow and become the matured 20-24 year old. That is when the old generation, Sjostrom, Campbell, Emma McKeon, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Efimova, will be replace by the new generation.
The Paris Olympics will also be when the next generation of men comes out.
The men and women are running on slightly different cycles with the women slightly lagging behind the men.
Swimming does run on cycles. New generation replaced old generation and newer generation replaced new generation. It is just the way it is.
The awesome result is about all 4 swimmers efforts. What a fantastic result for the guys and team GB. It was the most exciting race I’ve watched in a long time! Duncan Scott brought the team home in spectacular fashion.