North Carolina State University Athletics
Hansson and Held Lead Countries to National Records in Day Four Finals Session
12/19/2021 11:58:00 AM | Swimming
Abu Dhabi, UAE – Sophie Hansson and Ryan Held highlight Day Four of World Championship action with National Records for Sweden and the United States.
Former NC State sprint star Ryan Held opened and closed Day Four of competition with stellar relay performances. To kick things off, he ledoff the American's fourth-place finishing 4x50-meter freestyle relay with a new career best time of 20.72 seconds. In the individual 50-meter freestyle, just four events after his first relay performance of the session, Held lowered his career best yet again to snag silver for Team USA (20.70).
Held's dominance struck again at the end of the session in the men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay, where he anchored the Americans with a 1:42.21. Team USA's performance was good for a new American Record, lowering the mark by two seconds.
Alumnus Andreas Vazaios competed in the final of the 100-meter individual medley, his second individual final of the championship meet. His sixth-place finishing time of 51.74 was faster than his prelims swim by over a second.Â
Wolfpack junior Kacper Stokowski represented the country of Poland in the final of the 50-meter backstroke, where he finished sixth and broke the 23 second barrier for the first time with his 22.98 performance. The race marks his last individual event of the meet.
Breaststroke superstar Sophie Hansson set a Swedish National Record in the 100-meter breaststroke semifinal, clocking in at 1:04.17. She'll return to tomorrow's final as the second seed.
Representing Lithuania, alumnus Simonas Bilis contributed a 21.33 second split, taking the second leg of his country's 4x50-meter freestyle relay and leading the team to a seventh-place finish.
Nyls Korstanje will return to action in tomorrow's finals session in the 50-meter butterfly. His semifinals performance of 22.45 was just enough to qualify for the third round in eighth place.
The Wolfpack returns to the pool for two more days of competition on Monday and Tuesday. Prelims are set to begin at 12:30 a.m. EST, and the remaining finals sessions begin at 9 a.m. EST with all races covered on NBC.
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