Mack Horton beats fellow Aussie Jack McLoughlin to win gold in 400m freestyle
MIGHTY Mack Horton turned cold-blooded racer supreme to deliver the first gold of Australia’s medal rush just a month after he feared Queensland’s heat would boil away his superpowers in the pool.
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MIGHTY Mack turned cold-blooded racer supreme to deliver the first gold of Australia’s medal rush just a month after he feared Queensland’s heat would boil away his super-powers in the pool.
He may be swimming’s Migaloo on the suntan scale yet Melbourne champion Mack Horton is building a whale of a reputation for delivering when his over-hyped country is aching for gold.
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The laidback swimmer grabbed Thursday night’s 400m freestyle at the Commonwealth Games in a world-class time (3 min 43.76 sec) to quinella the race with Brisbane silver medallist Jack McLoughlin (3:45.21).
The brilliance of the Horton race was his calm confidence that he could catch English big gun James Guy, a former world champion at 200m, who led through the first 300m but didn’t have the Aussie’s distance background.
The electricity in the evening air was palpable and Horton, 21, harnessed it for a perfect encore to his heroics at the 2016 Rio Olympics where he also stepped up with Australia’s opening gold medal.
He gave the charge from the night a rating above his Olympic high.
“I probably feel more emotional here than in Rio because the whole crowd is cheering for you,” Horton said.
“Rio was cool but 10,000 people cheering for you is pretty unreal.
“Whenever I race I want to feel in control and I felt I was because when they (Guy and McLoughlin) went out hard I knew they were going to sting on the way home.”
No one was happier than Horton under cooler, murky Melbourne-like skies on the Gold Coast where the roars from the cliff-like grandstands would have lifted the roof off the outdoor venue if there’d been one.
Pool water temperatures had dropped two degrees from the 27.9 degree Celsius levels that were nearly too warm to compete in on the final summer night at the trials.
He felt like he was swimming in a spa in the 1500m final at the trials where he swam 25 seconds outside predictions and struggled as a sapped force from mid-race on a humid night.
“I was kind of in denial. That warmer water did have an effect so the plan here was always to get to camp in Queensland a week-and-a-half before the Games to immerse in the heat,” Horton said.
It’s just as the tale of Horton the elephant in the Dr Seuss children’s book told us “in the cool of the pool he was splashing” ... “Boil it? Oh that you can’t do, it’s full of persons.”
Horton knows his swimming history and there was a surge of pride with joining Ian Thorpe (1998 and 2002), Kieren Perkins (1994), Duncan Armstrong (1986), Murray Rose (1962) and John Konrads (1958) as a Commonwealth Games 400m gold medallist. That’s a Hall of Fame in itself.
Just as he had predicted, Horton showed he is a racer who doesn’t feel the pressure others imagine exists.
“The Comm Games is pretty much as fun as it gets,” Horton said.
“I don’t mind the pressure or expectation. I think when people come unstuck is when they fight it. You’ve got to enjoy and embrace it.”
Horton is extremely shortsighted and it wasn’t until he grabbed his glasses at poolside after the race that he could fully read the scoreboard.
“1 Mack Horton ... gold medal” is all he and Australia needed to process.
Originally published as Mack Horton beats fellow Aussie Jack McLoughlin to win gold in 400m freestyle
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