James Magnussen’s bravado is back and that spells danger for his 100m freestyle rivals

THE Magnussen swagger is back. Already tagged the “alpha male” of the event, James Magnussen is supremely confident heading into the 100m final despite qualifying third fastest.

James Magnussen qualified third fastest for the 100m final.

THE Magnussen swagger is back.

He may have qualified only third-fastest for the men’s 100m freestyle final, behind defending champion Cameron McEvoy, but it was dual world champion James Magnussen that held court after this morning’s heats.

Already tagged the “alpha male” of the event by Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers, Magnussen walked the walk this morning, finishing third in his heat before declaring he had plenty in the tank for Thursday’s final.

The effort came despite a poor start but it did little to faze Magnussen, whose confidence seems to be soaring on the back of his first injury-free preparation in years.

James Magnussen qualified third fastest for the 100m final.

“I got caught napping a bit at the start, I think,” he said of his heat, won by McEvoy in a 48.64sec, which led all competitors.

“I’m sure I can go quite a bit quicker than that tonight (Thursday).”

Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers and world championship finalist Jack Cartwright just made the final, the pair both recording 49.17 to scrape into the final in equal seventh spot.

“It’s deep but it’s not fast,” Magnussen said of the field.

“There’s a bit of depth but we all need to lift our game a bit tonight.”

Magnussen will use every tool in his bag to get an advantage over his rivals and is keen to embrace the position handed to him by Chalmers this week.

Cameron McEvoy finished fastest for the blue ribbon event.

“I’m always confident. I really had a very strong focus on my mental preparation this last couple of weeks,” he said.

“I felt like my training was going really well but I wasn’t quite backing myself and didn’t have the bravado that I had a couple of years ago, so I’ve worked really hard on that and hopefully I can express a bit of that.”

The 100m has been built up as the race to watch this week, a position Magnussen said the competitors should embrace.

“It’s the blue ribbon event. I don’t think it matters where in the world you are or who’s in the pool, the 100m is always the best race to watch,” he said.

“You can quote me on that.”

While all eyes will be on the 100m, the biggest performance could come in the race before, where fearless competitor Ariarne Titmus is on the cusp of a breakthrough swim in the 400m freestyle, threatening to become the first Australian woman to break the 4min barrier for the event.

Ariarne Titmus is on track to qualify for the 400m free.

Titmus backed up from her stunning 200m win to cruise through the heats of the 400m in 4:08.35.

Titmus beat Commonwealth record holder Emma McKeon to win the 200m on Wednesday night to book her spot as the fastest qualified for the final and is sure she has plenty more to give.

“I’ve got to forget about the 200m now, that was great but I’ve got to swim the 400m today, so that’s where my focus is,” she said.

“What I did at (Queensland) states, breaking the (Australian) record there, that gave me a lot of confidence coming into this and I know from my training that I should be able to swim faster than in December.

“Even though I got the Australian record, I didn’t quite achieve what I wanted to do in the race, so I’m going to try and do that again and it should give me a faster time.”

Earlier, Cate Campbell set an Australian record of 24.47 in the 50m butterfly before qualifying fastest for the final of the 100m freestyle.

“I’m really pleased with good morning swims, now I just need to get out of the sun, have a big nap and get ready to come back and do it all again tonight,” she said.

Campbell (53.22se) led sister Bronte (53.98) and Emma McKeon (54.33) through qualifying and expects a battle tonight.

‘It is going to be a really fast final, all those girls looked pretty cruisy this morning, so it is going to be world class tonight,” she said.

“We’ve got some great names in there.

“Bronte is back to swimming almost at her best, she’s had some really great training, which is really good to see and I’m sure Emma will always pull through, she’s the ultimate competitor.”

In other finals, Jake Packard qualified fastest for the men’s 100m breaststroke final and Leiston Pickett is in action in the women’s 100m breaststroke.

Originally published as James Magnussen’s bravado is back and that spells danger for his 100m freestyle rivals