Sweden had not previously competed in this team race distance, which meant the old record, from the 2022 European Championships in Rome, was quite modest.
We saw that the record for the mixed team was only three seconds faster than the women's record, so it was time to push it down a bit, says Robin Hanson.
The Swedish team made it to the final with a seventh-place finish.
Ludvig Bartolek (1.47.45), Robin Hanson (1.48.20), Elvira Mörtstrand (1.59.36) and Sofia Åstedt (2.00.73) swam in the team.
“A little more relaxed”
Everyone except Mörtstrand was on the mixed 4x100 meter freestyle team that finished seventh in the final on Thursday night.
17-year-old Bartolek broke his personal record by 46 hundredths of a second at the starting line and Mörtstrand swam more than a second faster than she had done before, even though it was with a flying start.
"I think it's more fun to swim in a team race, you get more excited. I'm a little more relaxed now, in a team you can talk to people and don't have to think about your own thoughts," says Bartolek, who was dissatisfied after his individual events, but has shown his talent in the team races.
The final will be swum on Saturday evening.
Chasing records
Olivia Klint Ipsa made it to the semifinals in the 50-meter breaststroke and had the 13th-fastest time with 30.89 - just five hundredths of a second above her personal best.
"I would love to "persa", that's the biggest goal. If I hadn't been given a second chance, it would have been very annoying to be so close," she says.
The 21-year-old Helsingborg swimmer also made it to the semifinals of the 100-meter breaststroke earlier this week.
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