49. 4 x 100m Medley Relay

Event: 4 x 100m Medley Relay
Date: 14th April 2014
Location: London Aquatics Centre, Stratford.  
Cost: £4.50 each
Rules:  Swimmers compete in teams of four, using all four swimming strokes in the sequence of: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle. Each team member takes turns to swim four lengths of the pool. The outgoing swimmer must not loose touch with the starting platform before the preceding team-mate touches the wall, or the team will be disqualified. Some part of the swimmer must touch the wall at the end of each length and at the finish.

The Event:

  

Times:
London 2012 Olympic Gold: 3.52.05 WR, USA.  
Team S&E: 12.36.02

Spilts:
Sarah (backstroke): 3.02
Zoe (breaststroke): 2.46
Ellie (butterfly): 4.04
Elaine (freestyle): 2.84

Comments:  

Sarah: Our first medley event! Though sadly, the last aquatic relay of the Challenge. The mix of strokes made this really fun. We all chose our preferred stroke and got stuck straight in. Ellie got lumped with the unpopular Butterfly- she definitely took one for the team there, but pulled it off impressively. As with lots of the other team events, it was really fun cheering each other on in our imaginary competition, and the best bit; as the only competitors, we always come first.

Ellie: Our first event with Butterfly in it and I'm really pleased with how it went. As we had four people in the pool it really did seem wise to complete this event even though we're new to butterfly - another popular win for logistics! Butterfly seems totally alien to the other swimming strokes but, with it's conception in the 1930's coming from the animals of the sea it could be argued as the most natural. I can certainly imagine that if you do it well it can be really rewarding. I definitely enjoyed it and with practice I hope my technique, stamina and time will improve.