Race video is courtesy of Universal Sports Network, a SwimSwam partner.
Mixed 4×50 Medley Relay – Doha World Cup – as reported by SwimSwim contributor Braden Keith.
The French combination of Jeremy Stravius, Giacomo Perez-D’Ortogna, Melanie Henique, and Anna Santamans combined for a 1:39.54 on Sunday, which is over two seconds better than the Russians did at the Moscow stop last week.
Note that this French relay was done without the services of two of the world’s great sprinters, Fred Bousquet and Florent Manaudou, who are both at the meet, as well as without stars like Camille Muffat or Charlotte Bonnet.
The comparative splits:
| France | Russia | ||
| Jeremy Stravius | 23.15 | 23.98 | Sergey Makov |
| Giacomo D’Ortogna | 26.41 | 26.90 | Andrey Grechin |
| Melanie Henique | 25.45 | 25.97 | Daria Tcvetkova |
| Anna Santamans | 24.53 | 24.85 | Ekaterina Borovikova |
| 1:39.54 | 1:41.70 |
This record will surely be broken many times over either in the Asian leg of the World Cup or certainly at December’s European Championships, and after then things should stabilize a little bit in the event before the 2014 Short Course World Championships.
Note that FINA had said that they would eliminate World Record bonus prizes for these relays at this year’s World Cup, in recognition of the lack of stability, but France did receive a check after their race, which seems to be a contrary message.