By Rick Madge
In a special time trial at the conclusion of the Olympic Trials, Canada’s Men’s 4 x 100 Medley Relay tried to improve their chances of getting into the Olympics with a 3:34.55.
The relay team consisting of Javier Acevedo, Jason Block, Santo Condorelli and Yuri Kisil maintained Canada’s Olympic ranking. But what that means will take a bit of an explanation.
The FINA qualifying process for relays itself is wonderfully straightforward:
1. The top 12 countries from the 2015 World Championships automatically qualify.
2. The next fastest 4 countries, based on times achieved between March 1, 2015 and July 3, 2016 will be invited. These 4 countries will be announced on July 3, 2016
However, Swimming Canada has added an additional requirement to increase the chances that Canadian relays will make finals. The requirement is that the relay must beat the 8th fastest time from the 2015 Worlds, and they must do it at the Olympic Trials.
A relay can meet this requirement in one of two ways:
Create a virtual relay time by adding up the times of the 4 fastest swimmers from the Trials finals, and then subtract 1.8 seconds to allow for relay starts.
OR
Swim the relay in a Time Trial held at the Olympic Trials
Here is the status of this relay.
– Did not prequalify, and is sitting in 1st spot among the non-prequalified countries with a 3:34.40 from the PanAm Games
– Virtual relay time = 3:33.99, Time Trial = 3:34.55, 8th place time = 3:34.02
They’re sitting in a good place right now as they are the fastest non-prequalified country, and the 4th non-prequalified country is presently Singapore with a 3:38.25. Almost 4 seconds slower than Canada.
We won’t know for sure until July 3 if this relay qualifies, but they are certainly in a strong position.
Here’s the status of Canada’s other relays.
Four Canadian relays have met the requirements and are going to the Olympics.
Women’s 4 x 100 Free Relay
– Prequalifed with a 5th at 2015 Worlds
– Virtual relay time = 3:34.01, 8th place time = 3:38.35
Women’s 4 x 100 Medley Relay
– Prequalified with a 6th at 2015 Worlds
– Virtual relay time = 3:54.52, 8th place time = 4:00.43
Women’s 4 x 200 Free Relay
– Prequalified with a 11th at 2015 Worlds
– Virtual relay time = 7:49.16, 8th place time = 7:55.08
Men’s 4 x 100 Free Relay
– Prequalified with a 6th at 2015 Worlds
– Virtual relay time = 3:14.07, 8th place time = 3:15.47
The Men’s 4 x 200 Free Relay will not be going to the Olympics as it missed the extra Swimming Canada requirement.
– Did not prequalify, and is sitting in 4th spot among the non-prequalified countries
– Virtual relay time = 7:13.13, Saturday Time Trial = 7:18.26, 8th place time = 7:10.92
