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 Russian women have crushed their country’s old National Record in the 800 SCM freestyle relay on Saturday at the 2018 World Short Course Swimming Championships. Racing in finals in Hangzhou, the group of Anna Egorova, Daria Mullakaeva, Anastasia Guzenkova, and Veronika Andrusenko combined to swim a 7:36.64, which undercut the old record of 7:39.93.
The old record was set at the last edition of the World Short Course Championships in 2016, with the only holdovers being Mullakaeva and Andrusenko (who was then racing as Veronika Popova). In the old record-setting relay, Mullakaeva was a 1:57.53 on the leadoff, and on Saturday she was a much-faster 1:55.22 on the 2nd leg. Andrusenko, meanwhile, left some time on the table – in 2016 she anchored in 1:52.44, and this year her split was just 1:53.30. The split was still a second faster than she swam in the individual final for 7th place, however.
Comparative Splits
| Old Russian Record | Splits | New Russian Record | Splits |
| Daria Mullakaeva | 1:57.53 | Anna Egorova | 1:54.18 |
| Daria Ustinova | 1:55.13 | Daria Mullakaeva | 1:55.22 |
| Arina Openysheva | 1:54.83 | Anastasia Guzhenkova | 1:53.94 |
| Veronika Andrusenko | 1:52.44 | Veronika Andrusenko | 1:53.30 |
| TOTAL TIME | 7:39.93 | TOTAL TIME | 7:36.64 |
This event isn’t raced at the European Short Course Championships nor the FINA World Cup Series, meaning that these World Championships are the only good opportunity for most countries to swim national records in the event. The Russians have now broken 6 National Relay Records at this meet and 8 Russian Records overall.
Russia finished 4th in 7:36.64, behind Australia (7:36.40), the United States (7:35.30), and China (7:34.08).