2025 World Championships: Day 1 Women’s Relay Analysis – Australia Close Strong For 4 In A Row ...Middle East

By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam

2025 World Championships

Women’s 4×100 Free Relay – Final

Australia won their fourth consecutive world title in this event tonight, after Olivia Wunsch ran down Torri Huske on the final 50 to hand a youthful Australia team the win. Erin Gemmell was a last minute replacement for Gretchen Walsh on this relay for the U.S., who also had Torri Huske looking like she was recovering from illness, and despite a stunning 51.90 second leg they couldn’t quite match the Aussies pace.

1st Leg – Lead-Off (Flat Start)

Milou van Wijk was the early leader for the Netherlands, but as we have seen so often it was Mollie O’Callaghan who came through with strong final 25 to take the touch as the only leadoff under 53 seconds. She was significantly slower than her time of 52.24 from last summer or the 52.08 she led off in back in 2023, but it was enough to give Australia a lead they would end up hanging on to.

Van Wijk would touch in 53.27, just 0.09 off her lifetime best from this season. Sara Curtis went out half a second slower than this morning for Italy, but came home far stronger to touch in 53.29, just off her Italian Record of 53.01.

Beryl Gastaldello clipped her best of 53.60 on the leadoff for France, while Minna Abraham broke 54 seconds for the first time for Hungary.

Flying Splits

Meg Harris, AUS- 51.87

Kate Douglass, USA – 51.90

Wu Qingfeng, CHN – 52.94

Marie Wattel, FRA – 52.97

Olivia Wunsch, AUS – 53.05

Erin Gemmell, USA – 53.17

Chiara Tarantino, ITA – 53.75

Petra Senanszky, HUN – 53.85

Emma Virginia Menicucci, ITA – 53.87

Yu Yiting, CHN – 53.88

Yaxin Liu, CHN – 53.93

Albane Cachot, FRA – 53.95

Aleksandra Kuznetsova, NAB – 54.00

Nikolett Padar, HUN- 54.11

Marina Jehl, FRA – 54.12

Tessa Giele, NED – 54.13

Alina Gaifutdinova, NAB – 54.24

Sofia Morini, ITA – 54.27

Panna Ugrai, HUN – 54.41

Meg Harris and Kate Douglass had a phenomenal second leg for their respective teams, as both broke 52 seconds as they stormed away from the field. Douglass was 52.04 this morning so dropped just over a tenth, while Harris was a few hundredths faster than her 51.92 anchor from Paris last year, which was her previous fastest split.

While we had three splits under 52 seconds, we only had another five under 53 seconds, as both the U.S. and Australia had one split above that mark, Olivia Wunsch‘s 53.05 and Erin Gemmell‘s 53.17.

China were nearly four seconds slower than their Asian Record of 3:30.30 set in Paris last summer, as they only returned half the legs. Zhang Yufei and Yang Junxuan were not on this relay, with Yaxin Liu (53.93) and Yu Yiting (53.88), who was on her third swim of the session and sixth of the day, coming into the team. They were in a battle with Italy for third place through the first 300, and when the Italians dropped away on the final leg Wu could not hold off a fast charging Marrit Steenbergen, despite having the 7th fastest split in the field.

Steenbergen was the fastest swimmer tonight, and looks the most likely swimmer to upset Mollie O’Callaghan now with Torri Huske‘s form uncertain after she was only 52.88. She dragged the Dutch back into the race from last place to take the bronze, cementing her status as one of the world’s premier relay swimmers after she had numerous fast splits at 2023 Worlds. Their other two splits were in the 54s, as Tessa Giele came onto the team for tonight and split 54.13, but they also had the slowest split in the field on leg 3 from Sam van Nunen, who is more oriented towards the distance freestyle races.

Bypassed entirely by Steenbergen were France and NAB, who were separated by no more than four-tenths of a second throughout this race. They got sub-53 anchors from Marie Wattel (52,97) and Daria Klepikova (52.68) as they finished just 0.07 seconds apart. France’s middle legs were slightly stronger, which ended up being the difference between the two.

Italy were in 3rd place at the final takeover thanks to 53-point splits from Emma Menicucci and Chiara Tarantino, but a 54.27 anchor from Sofia Morini dropped them down to 7th. Hungary ended up a second behind them despite dropping a second from this morning, as Minna Abraham switching to leadoff allowed Nikolett Padar to anchor, where she was a second faster than in the morning. Petra Senanszky was sub-54 for the second time today on the second leg.

Australia Closing Strong While The U.S. Struggle To Hold On?

Australia won the race tonight thanks to Wunsch’s final 50, where she blasted away from Torri Huske as the American faded, but it wasn’t just on the anchor that we saw a difference in tactics. On three of the four legs tonight, the Australian swimmer closed significantly faster than their American counterpart, and the only one to close faster, Kate Douglass, was just 0.04 seconds faster.

This is not a phenomenon localized to this year either. Over the last five years, the U.S. have only outsplit their corresponding Australian leg on the second 50 on three occasions, and never more than once in a single relay.

This year, the total difference between the second half of the four legs was 1.75 seconds, dwarfing the eventual 0.44 second gap between the two. There does seem to be a big difference between how the two countries approach this relay with the Australian’s approach having delivered gold in each of the last five years.

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