A Special Thanks to Deep Blue Media for providing the images from this meet World Championships, Day Four Men’s Finals: France Destroys World Record For Gold In Mixed 200 Freestyle Relay The relay stranglehold of Australia and the United States at the World Short Course Championships was broken in emphatic fashion during the first event of Friday’s night session, as France blasted the world record in the mixed 200-meter freestyle relay in Melbourne. Behind the efforts of Maxime Grousset, Florent Manaudou, Beryl Gastaldello and Melanie Henique, the French produced a mark of 1:27.33 to easily erase the former mark of Team USA, which stood at 1:27.89 from 2018. Enjoying a superb meet as an individual, Grousset jumpstarted France with an opening split of 20.92 before Mauadou, the 2012 Olympic champ in the 50 freestyle, delivered an outing of 20.26. At that point, France was in command, and Gastaldello and Henique ensured its advantage would not disappear. Gastaldello followed with a split of 23.00 and Henique closed out the title-winning performance with a split of 23.15. Australia came through for the silver medal in an Oceania record of 1:28.03, with Kyle Chalmers going 20.97 on the leadoff leg to set the stage for Matt Temple, Meg Harris and Emma McKeon. The 28-year-old McKeon was sensational on the anchor leg and easily popped the fastest split among women, going 22.62. The Bronze medal was secured by the Netherlands in 1:28.63, with the United States locked off the podium in 1:29.18. The Dutch turned to a squad of Kenzo Simons, Thom de Boer, Maaike de Waard and Marrit Steenbergen. Photo Courtesy:
