Open Water 5K Team Relay – Final (Lake Balaton, Hungary)

Results

Gold: France, 54:05.9
Silver: United States, 54:18.1

Brendan Casey (Santa Monica, Calif./Unattached)
Ashley Twichell (Fayetteville, N.Y./North Carolina Aquatic Club)
Haley Anderson (Granite Bay, Calif./Trojan Swim Club)
Jordan Wilimovsky (Malibu, Calif./Team Santa Monica)

Bronze: Italy, 54:31.0



Notes
• Casey gave the United States a 7-second lead after the first 1.25K leg.
• Swimming against many male competitors, Twichell tagged Anderson with Team USA in fifth at the 5K mark. The U.S. was 27 seconds behind race leader Great Britain at that point.
• Anderson kept Team USA in fifth through 3.75K, 52 seconds behind Great Britain.
• On the anchor, Wilimovsky made up considerable ground and swam the U.S. into second position, finishing 12 seconds behind gold medalist France.
• Each athlete swam 1.25K to complete the 5K distance. This format was making its debut at the FINA World Championships.
• With today’s silver-medal finish, Twichell and Wilimovsky claimed their second medals of the 2017 FINA World Championships. Twichell now has four career medals; Wilimovsky three. Anderson wins her third career world championships medal, while Casey claims his first.
• Twichell is now the first American athlete with four career FINA World Championships open water medals, and Wilimovsky joins Chip Peterson as the only men with three career medals.

Quotes
Haley Anderson (on the relay experience): “It was really exciting having four of us out there. Distance swimmers don’t really get a chance to do relays, so it’s pretty much a first for all of us. It makes it even more fun having three people out there with you.”

Jordan Wilimovsky (on the anchor leg): “We don’t get to do relays a lot, so when you do you want to try and win. I knew I was a fair ways behind the French guy and right behind the Italian guy … It was kind of hard to see … I just put my head down.”

Ashley Twichell (on competing side-by-side with men): “A couple of them came up on me, and I tried to stay on their feet. I felt like I was drafting pretty well, and then I had a few more come up on either side of me. They’re pretty strong, so it takes a little bit out of you, but I stayed with them as best as I could.”

Brendan Casey (on leading off the relay): “I knew there were a few guys that I would be racing in there, so I just tried to have a breakaway so the girls couldn’t draft as much at the end. The exchange was kind of shoddy – I’d never done it before … but we got Ashley out there.”

Up Next
Friday, July 21: Women’s 25K, Men’s 25K