Commonwealth Games 2022: Cody Simpson qualifies for 100m butterfly final, Matt Temple fastest

Cody Simpson has been steadily getting quicker with each round and has a real shot at winning an individual medal.

Pop star Cody Simpson has capped his meteoric rise from the music charts to the Commonwealth Games with a finals berth in the 100 metres butterfly.

While Simpson was the headline act, unsung Aussie swim star Matt Temple is on track to win the men’s 100 metres butterfly gold at the Commonwealth Games after cruising into the final as the fastest qualifier.

A finalist at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, the unassuming Temple easily won his semi-final in 51.52 seconds to go into Wednesday’s morning final as the man to beat.

Simpson qualified fifth fastest in 52.16, almost four-tenths of a second outside his time at the Australian trials in May.

Simpson has been steadily getting quicker with each round and has a real shot at winning an individual medal if he can step it up again after already collecting a confidence-boosting gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

Cody Simpson qualified fifth fastest for the final. Picture: Michael Klein.

Both he and Temple swam in the relay heats but not the final as Kyle Chalmers, Flynn Southam, William Yang and Zac Incerti finished the job.

Chalmers was also entered in the 100m butterfly but withdrew to focus all his energy on the 100m freestyle — which he duly won in devastating fashion.

His withdrawal will make it a little easier for Simpson to get a medal but if he does get on the podium he will have earned it because it’s still a deep field.

Chad le Clos, the South African who beat Michael Phelps to win the 200m butterfly Olympic gold in London a decade ago, qualified second fastest for the final.

Cody Simpson is through to the 100m butterfly final at the Commonwealth Games. Picture: Michael Klein.

Matthew Temple and Cody Simpson are through to the final. Picture: Michael Klein

Englishman James Guy, a double Olympic gold medallist in relays from Tokyo, was third fastest while Canada’s Joshua Liendo, the bronze medallist at last month’s world championships, was fourth.

Simpson has become one of the great feel good stories in Australian swimming for years after giving up a successful musical career to rejoin the cut throat world of elite swimming, where he was a promising junior.

Both his parents swam for Australia but he has already surpassed them by winning a gold medal and he isn’t finished yet. As well as the 100m individual final, he also has the medley relay to come but his ultimate goal remains the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Each country can only pick two competitors for each event at the Olympics so Simpson’s fate could well rest with Chalmers, who maintains he wants to swim the stroke in Paris even though he stuck to freestyle at Rio and the Japanese capital.

Chalmers didn’t make the final of the 50m in Birmingham and his last-minute withdrawal from the 100m was applauded by Australian swimming legend Campbell who thinks he should stick to what he’s best at.

“He really needs to focus on where it counts,” she said.