Aussie icon Mollie O’Callaghan blows rivals out of the water

Australian swimming sensation Mollie O’Callaghan has blown her rivals away to claim the tenth world championship gold of her career.

Australian swimming sensation Mollie O’Callaghan has stormed to victory in the 200m freestyle final at the world championships in Singapore.

The 21-year-old backed up her Olympic title by blowing her rivals away over the final 50m of the race.

O’Callaghan powered away after the final turn as she touched the wall in a time of 1:53.48 to edge out China’s Bingjie Li (1:54.52) and America’s Claire Weinstein (1:54.67).

The result means Australia have now claimed four gold medals in the pool at the event with O’Callaghan claiming her tenth world championships gold.

Mollie O'Callaghan was far too good for her rivals in the final. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

The gold medal swim came after fellow Aussie swimmer Sam Short was forced to withdraw from the 800m final after suffering a “nasty” bout of food poisoning.

Short, who won a silver medal on the opening night of the competition in the men’s 400m freestyle after finishing just 0.02 seconds behind Lukas Martens, made the emotional announcement in an Instagram post.

“Just wanted to let everyone know that I will not be doing the 800m final tonight after receiving medical advice,” Short wrote on Instagram.

“Extremely emotional after this decision as I was very excited to showcase what I can do and the training I have done! I still believe this is my best race distance and I was ready for a PB.

Sam Short was forced to withdraw after getting food poisoning. Picture: Adam Head

“After an awesome heat swim which I felt phenomenal, I got very ill very fast, which we believe is food poisoning from my hotel lunch. I have only been consuming meals from the hotel. My afternoon and night has been full of vomiting and all the other nasty stuff that comes with food poisoning! Not pleasant and extremely draining.

“I had full intention of competing if I started to show signs of improvement. However, this has not happened. I am going to try my best to recover as well as possible to help my team in the 4x200 relay on Friday. Sorry Australia.”

Queenslander Benjamin Goedemans, Short’s replacement, finished seventh with a time of 7:50.52.

Originally published as Aussie icon Mollie O’Callaghan blows rivals out of the water