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The United States set the pace in the men’s 4×200 free relay with defending champions Australia squeezing into the final in eighth place.
The USA quartet were led off by Carson Foster in 1:45.62 followed by Trey Freeman (1:46.91), Coby Carrozza (1:46.22) and Trenton Julian (1:45.64) to stop the clock at 1:45.64.
Kristof Milak drove Hungary to first place in heat one with an anchor leg of 1:46.74 with eyes switching to the battle in lanes four and five where Australia and Italy were going stroke for stroke with fourth and fifth places – and potential elimination – on the line.
Mack Horton got his long arm to the wall first as Australia touched fourth in 7:09.98 with Italy fifth although it left both teams with a nervous wait.
The USA led from the start in heat two but behind them a battle royale was unfolding between Olympic champions Britain and France.
Britain are missing Duncan Scott, who missed the championships after struggling to recover from covid, with James Guy in the 100 fly prelims.
Jacob Whittle, better known as a sprinter, took over on the anchor leg to go 1:47.48 as Britain finished in 7:09.76 to book sixth spot overall ahead of France (7:09.95) and Australia, who claimed the final spot in 7:09.98 with Italy missing out.
Exactly three seconds separated second to eighth with Russia – silver medallists at 2019 worlds and last year’s Olympics – banned following the invasion of Ukraine.
Qualifiers
- USA; 7:04.39
- Brazil; 7:06.98
- Hungary; 7:07.46
- Republic of Korea; 7:08.49
- China; 7:09.53
- Britain; 7:09.76
- France; 7:09.95
- Australia; 7:09.98
Where are the individual times