2018 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 11th – Sunday, December 16th
- Hangzhou, China
- Tennis Centre, Hangzhou Olympic & International Expo Center
- SCM (25m)
- Prelims: 9:30 am local, 8:30 pm ET / Finals: 7:00 pm* local, 6:00* am ET
- *The final night of finals will be one hour earlier, starting at 6:00 pm local and 5:00 am ET
- Live Results (Omega)
The Italian women broke their National Record for the second straight time in the women’s 4×200 free relay, first doing so in the prelims and then again in the final.
In the heats, they clocked 7:44.82 to lower the previous mark of 7:46.01 set at the 2012 World Championships in Istanbul. In tonight’s final, they dropped the record all the way down to 7:43.18 on the strength of a 1:52.66 3rd leg from Federica Pellegrini.
That gave Pellegrini, who is the only returning member from that 2012 team, the 2nd fastest split among swimmers with a relay exchange in the field. Wang Jianjiahe of China was quickest in 1:52.52, as they broke the world record in 7:34.08. Australian Ariarne Titmus was faster than everyone from a flat start in 1:52.22.
Italy ended up finishing 6th, and their team was made up of the same four swimmers who broke the record in prelims: Margherita Panziera, Erica Musso, Pellegrini and Simona Quadarella.
Check out a comparison of the splits between the three record breaking teams below:
| Italy, 2012 SC Worlds | Italy, 2018 SC Worlds (Prelims) | Italy, 2018 SC Worlds (Final) |
| Mizzau – 1:57.23 | Panziera – 1:56.78 | Panziera – 1:56.71 |
| Nesti – 1:56.76 | Musso – 1:56.13 | Musso – 1:56.65 |
| Carli – 1:57.71 | Pellegrini – 1:54.09 | Pellegrini – 1:52.66 |
| Pellegrini – 1:54.31 | Quadarella – 1:57.82 | Quadarella – 1:57.16 |
| 7:46.01 | 7:44.82 | 7:43.18 |