Commonwealth Games 2018: Cate Campbell wins gold in women’s 50m freestyle
AN emotional Cate Campbell has broken down on the dais after winning her first major individual gold medal since her Rio meltdown.
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AN emotional Cate Campbell has broken down on the dais after winning her first major individual gold medal since her Rio meltdown.
Campbell put any doubt she was back as an international superstar to bed with an emphatic win in the 50m freestyle, touching the wall just 0.11 sec outside Swede Sarah Sjostrom’s world record.
It seemed business as usual after Campbell had started her Games campaign by anchoring Australia to a world record in the freestyle relay on Thursday night with the fastest split in history.
But as she stood on the dais listening to the national anthem, with sister Bronte beside her wearing silver, Campbell’s bottom lip started to quiver and a tear spilt from her eyes, giving an indication of the magnitude of her fightback from the dark days after the Rio Olympics.
“I didn’t expect it to be so emotional to be honest,” Campbell said.
“There was something about knowing the whole crowd would be singing the national anthem with me that got me all teary.
“So many people have supported me through the past two years.
“To be able to share this moment with the rest of Australia was something that was so special.”
While Campbell starts her campaign in the blue riband 100m on Sunday, taking an individual win was a crucial step in her road back from Rio where she started the 100m as a white-hot favourite but faded to sixth after failing to cope with the pressure of the meet.
Campbell has embraced it on the Gold Coast though, riding the wave of support from the raucous crowd of 10,000 and using the expectation in her favour.
“I had goose bumps when the crowd started chanting: ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi, Oi, Oi!’.
“That’s what we thrive off and probably the thing I’ll miss most when I retire,” Campbell said of the pressure.
Bronte Campbell, who will take a break after these Games to rehabilitate chronic shoulder and hip injuries said she was pleased with her effort — and thrilled for Cate.
“She’s doing amazingly well. It’s great to see her come back and do so well and just keep smashing down barriers for herself,” Bronte said.
“You always want to see people improve but when you really care about the person it’s a little bit more special.”
Emily Seebohm was just denied a third consecutive gold in the 100m backstroke when she was out-touched by Canada’s world record-holder Kylie Masse in a thrilling race.
The Canadian broke the Games record for the third time in as many swims at this meet to beat Seebohm by 0.03 to claim gold.
So often a bridesmaid at the top level, Seebohm said she could not be disappointed with her race after swimming almost a quarter of a second faster than at last month’s trials.
“I’m so excited, that’s so much faster that what I did at trials,” she said.
“If it wasn’t for the crowd cheering me on I don’t think I would have been able to swim as fast.”
South African Chad le Clos became one of only a handful of swimmers to have won the same event at three consecutive Commonwealth Games when he snared the 200m butterfly to win his 14th Games medal.
David Morgan won silver in a game effort.
“I’m really happy with that. It’s not the fastest time I’ve done but in that race, I needed to race it,” he said.
“I was racing to try and win it. Sometimes you over think it and in that race, I knew I just had to do it and I was pleased with how I went.”
Originally published as Commonwealth Games 2018: Cate Campbell wins gold in women’s 50m freestyle
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