With France’s swim in the 200 mixed SCM medley relay at the Doha stop of the 2013 World Cup, the times are starting to get down to a time where they’re respectable World Records, and as such we’ll start recognizing them as we do most records with an individual post.
See the full day 1 recap here.
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.
Maybe France can put together a nice team also for tomorrow. On the Men’s side they got a positive problem of having to drop a top-notch sprinter from the team – Manaudou, Bousquet or Stravius. I
Anyway, I find this somewhat unsatisfactory that once world records for particular events are suddenly recognized earlier and duly proven performances for those events are not taken into consideration.
For instance, France has done this faster before in Chartres last year where they won a gold medal in time of 1:38.74. Similarly, France posted a time of 1:29.64 for a mixed freestyle relay which is considerably faster than the current world record of 1:32.52. Actually, sorry for being a bit mean, there were four… Read more »
Lithuania might try a female breaststroker.
mixed freestyle makes sense because its the same event for all but with the mixed medley it will never make sense to have a girl do backstroke or breaststroke because the percentage difference between guys and girls results in the greatest time difference for those splits.
Quote: the best team would be Stravius on backstroke, Manaudou on breaststroke, Hénique on butterfly and Santamans on freestyle.
Quite obviously yes, this is the team which actually holds the World Best time since December 2012…!
Ok. I didn’t even know that.
I only put the best on each stroke.
And Stravius is the fastest French backstroker in short course.
Manaudou isn’t a breaststroker but is the fastest over 50 meters thanks to his starts and his huge power.
Hénique is by far the best on butterfly and is a true 50 specialist.
Santamans is the big French sprint hope and is also a 50 specialist.
I hate these mixed relays so I’m not jumping of joy but at least, they have understood the best tactic. Put the 2 men first and the 2 girls then.
This world record will not last for a very long time. Except the huge time from Stravius as lead-off on backstroke, other times are good but not great.
If I analyze that very seriously, I’d say it’s almost the best possible French team for a mixed relay. In my opinion, the best team would be Stravius on backstroke, Manaudou on breaststroke, Hénique on butterfly and Santamans on freestyle.
Braden, if you use the tactic of 2 men followed by 2 girls, Fred Bousquet is useless. And you… Read more »
The mixed medley is going to reach the stage that EVERY SINGLE TEAM is going to put 2 men first and 2 women second very soon. That is the reason I hate this race. I am a fan of the 4 x 50 mixed freestyle however.