The Chase Down. This occurs when the anchoring swimmer makes up the huge lead the opposing team has built by littering chasing them down and getting to the wall first. It is common knowledge that in any freestyle relay, there exists two aces in the requisite four man team. Of the two, one is known to be an elite freestyler, the other a complete wild card. Usually, either of these two are the ones chasing down the opponents and delivering that decisively dramatic win.
During my career, I was blessed to be part of two dramatic relay teams. The first one happened when I was in high school, competing in the 4x100 medley relay. Down by a considerable margin after the backstroke and breaststroke, I proved to be fast enough to catch up and overtake the opposing UP and UST swimmers in the butterfly. Our freestyler extended the lead and ultimately delivered the win (Incidentally, that win was the final gold medal for the Ateneo High School in 2005--the year of our first UAAP championship. It was only fitting that we ended the meet with such a dramatic yet dominant victory.)
The second one happened during my junior year in college back in 2009. It was in the 4x50 meters freestyle relay. I swam the lead off leg followed by Chem Ocampo, Jan Formalejo then our captain Jonas Ramos. I won't go into detail anymore about what happened. No words could truly describe the intensity and drama of that race even after you watch it over a hundred times. That said, here's the video. Sit back, relax and take part of the drama!
Hope you enjoyed that as much as we did!
Take Your Mark!
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