Americans finish strong with a relay world record in the swim worlds to top medal tables

The United States, which had a frustrating swim world championships, ended on a high note Sunday (yesterday, Macau time) with a world record in the women’s 4×100 medley relay in the last event of the eight-day championships.

The Americans swam a time of 3 minutes, 49.34 seconds, breaking their own old mark of 3:49.63 set a year ago in the Paris Olympics.

The United States finished with nine gold medals and 29 overall, ahead of Australia with eight gold and 20 overall. France and Canada were next in the gold-medal count with four gold medals. The 18-year-old Canadian star Summer McIntosh won all four golds.

The Americans battled a case of “acute gastroenteritis” picked up at a training camp in Thailand. The malady clearly affected the team’s up-and-down performances in Singapore.

“This is the best way to end the meet,” Gretchen Walsh said. “And I feel like we have such a good opportunity when you have this stacked group of women closing it out on a relay like this.

“We’re going to leave Singapore with a smile on our faces,” she added.

Regan Smith, Kate Douglass and Walsh swam the first three legs with Torri Huske taking the anchor.

The Americans had only five gold medals through six days, but won four in the last two as team health clearly improved.

Finke defends his team

American Bobby Finke, the Paris Olympic champion at 1,500 meters, took a bronze in that event on Sunday. But he also had a message for critics back home.

They included former American swimmers Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in a critical social media post.

Three-time Olympic gold-medalist Rowdy Gaines called for changes at USA Swimming, in an interview with The Associated Press. The governing body has been without a CEO for a year.

“I’m proud of the USA team and what we’ve been able to accomplish despite all the people back at home saying whatever they want to say,” Finke said. “But you know, I’m proud of these boys. If someone’s angry, my DMs are open.”

Leon Marchand of France left the worlds on Sunday with what he came for – two individual gold medals.

McIntosh came away with four individual golds – one shy of her quest to win five. Still, she is only the second woman at a world championships to win four individual golds.

Her only blip was finishing third to American Katie Ledecky in the 800 freestyle on Saturday.

And 12-year-old Chinese Yu Zidi, in an astounding performance, finished fourth in all three of her individual races. She, however, did pick up a bronze medal in a relay, where she swam in the prelims but not in the final. She swam the 200 fly, and both IM races.

Sunday’s results

Kliment Kolesnikov of the Neutral Athletes won the men’s 50 backstroke in 23.68. Kolesnikov holds the world record (23.55). Pieter Coetze of South Africa and Pavel Samusenko of the Neutral Athletes tied for silver (24.17).

Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania, the world record holder, claimed the 50 breaststroke (29.55) with silver for Tang Qianting of China (30.03) and bronze to Benedetta Pilato of Italy (30.14).

Meg Harris of Australia took the women’s 50 free (24.02). Harris was also the silver medalist in the same event in the Paris Olympics. China claimed the next two places with Wu Qingfeng (24.26) taking silver and bronze for Cheng Yujie (24.28). STEPHEN WADE, SINGAPORE, MDT/AP