The blue-yellow quartet Louise Hansson, Daniel Kertes, Sara Junevik, and Elias Persson surprised by being the second fastest in the trials earlier in the day.
In Wednesday evening's final, some of the competitors had sharpened their teams. And then it didn't help that Hansson & Co set a new Swedish record again. 1.37,05 – 23 hundredths of a second faster than the trial time – was only enough for sixth place.
The Russian team, under a neutral flag, won ahead of Canada and the USA. Sweden was 85 hundredths of a second away from the bronze.
Otherwise, the evening's swimming events in Budapest did not offer any Swedish successes.
Louise Hansson came eighth and last in the final of the 100-meter backstroke, the distance where she won the World Championship gold three years ago. Now her time was a modest 56,52 seconds after running out of energy on the final stretch.
The legs just can't quite make it all the way, she says to SVT.
Sara Junevik was knocked out in the semifinal of the 100-meter freestyle, and the same fate befell Sophie Hansson in the 100-meter breaststroke.
The one who impressed the most during the final was the Swiss star Noe Ponti, who on the 50-meter butterfly improved his fresh world record from the trials. The new record time of 21,32 seconds meant an improvement of eleven hundredths.
