Swimming FINA World Championships 2022 day 5 schedule, results
Emma McKeon again stole the show on the penultimate day at the world shortcourse championships, but her deeds now have Australia in rare air from the Ian Thorpe era.
Australia’s unstoppable swimmers smashed another world record to inch closer to breaking a magical milestone that was set in the days when Olympic legend Ian Thorpe was king of the world.
The latest world record — which came with a mouth-watering $37,000 bonus — was set in the women’s 4x50m medley final at the world shortcourse championships in Melbourne on Saturday.
It was done by Mollie O’Callaghan, Chelsea Hodges, Emma McKeon and Madi Wilson, who are all serial record breakers now.
Two hours later, McKeon won another gold medal — her fourth this week — in the individual 50m freestyle.
McKeon has won more than 30 gold medals at major international events, including four at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, and shows no sign of slowing down. If anything, she’s getting even better as she ages because she goes about her work so professionally.
Her two wins lifted Australia’s gold medal tally in Melbourne to 11, with one day to go.
If the Aussies can win another one on Sunday they’ll match their biggest ever haul at a shortcourse world championship but if they manage two more — they will equal an even bigger milestone — the most gold medals at any world championships.
The record of 13 was set at the 2001 (long course) world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, when Thorpe won six golds by himself, as a teenager. The Aussies matched that total in 2005 but it has never been challenged since — until now.
“I think it‘s just carried on from Tokyo and onwards,” McKeon said.
“It‘s inspiring young ones to come through and this team has a lot of rookies as well, their first chance representing Australia. So it’s really inspiring the next crop of people to come through, push forward and be a part of that team that’s going so well.”
Although the margins in freestyle sprints are always tiny, McKeon’s win was never in doubt after she turned in front and powered home to win her second individual world title following her win in the 100m.
“I knew I had to be pretty on my game and I thought if I could just get the start good then the rest of the race will kind of take care of itself so that was really my only focus going in and it paid off.”
With McKeon swimming the butterfly leg in the medley relay, Wilson was given the responsibility of anchoring the team and did her job perfectly, getting her hands on the wall in the nick of time to beat the United States by a fingernail and break their four-year-old world record.
“I knew it was going to be tight just to get a medal so to come away with the win and get a world record on top of it – this is the first time I‘ve been really surprised by it,” Wilson said.
“It’s pretty rare for me to be on the back of a medley relay. But obviously with Emma being good at fly and Mollie being amazing at backstroke, it was my call up to anchor it. It was my first time anchoring and I had the best experience.”
ANOTHER AUSSIE DISQUALIFIED
Jenna Strauch has been disqualified from 50m breaststroke contention in the heats.
She’s the second Australian disqualified for the morning after Brendon Smith was ruled out of the men’s 400m medley.
Chelsea Hodges, who won bronze in Birmingham in this event, advanced through to the semis.
PERKINS ON TRACK, SWIM-OFF LOSS FOR CASTELLUZZO
Alex Perkins has flown into the 100m butterfly semis but teammate Brittany Castelluzzo was consigned to a swim-off after finishing equal-eighth with Finnish rival Laura Lahtinen, which she ultimately lost.
Perkins finished third-ranked overall with a 56.46 effort, while Castelluzzo tied for the last lane down the leaderboard after swimming 57.85.
Perkins finished fourth at the 100m Commonwealth Games butterfly final in Birmingham earlier this year.
DQ DRAMA
Aussie Brendon Smith has been disqualified from the men’s 400m medley.
Smith’s swim was declared ineligible after a botched backstroke-to-breaststroke turn, where he did not transition predominantly on his back.
The news was better for compatriot David Schilcht, who qualified for the final out of the same heat as the fifth-ranked swimmer overall.
YOUNG DOLPHINS MISS OUT
Kayla Hardy and Emilie Muir have narrowly missed securing a lane in the women’s 400m medley final.
Hardy swam a strong butterfly leg to establish an early lead but slowed to fourth in her heat. Muir, on Dolphins debut in the same race, flew home in the freestyle leg to make up some ground on the field and hit the wall in fifth place.
A speedy final heat bundled both Aussies out of reckoning for the final, with Hardy sinking to ninth and Muir in 10th overall.
American Leah Smith was the fastest qualifier with 4:30.93.
COOPER RETURNS AFTER SHATTERING NIGHT
Isaac Cooper hit the pool early Saturday for the men’s 4x50m medley in his first swim since last night’s agony, where he was fastest to finish a backstroke final only to find out it wouldn’t count due to a false start caused by a timing malfunction.
After finishing second in the re-swim, the 18-year-old bounced back with a slick 22.95-second opening leg of the medley relay heat to set his teammates up for qualifying.
The Aussies finished third in their heat, scraping through in seventh overall to clinch a lane in the final.
MCKEON FLIES AS AUSSIES CRACK RECORD
Emma McKeon reminded of her butterfly talent while Madi Wilson powered the 4x50m women’s medley team home as the Aussies broke the Oceania record in the heats.
The strong heat team also featuring Jenna Strauch (breaststroke) and Kaylee McKeown (backstroke) topped the heats leaderboard with 1:44.78, qualifying for tonight’s final as firm favourites.
‘OUT OF NOWHERE’: CHALMERS TIPS DARK HORSE FOR 50M GOLD
Kyle Chalmers didn’t believe he’d even make the 50m freestyle final amid a packed Friday night schedule and says Cayman Islands dark horse Jordan Crooks deserves to win it.
‘King Kyle’ reigned supreme in the 100m final Thursday night, but with mixed 50m and 4x200m freestyle relays to contend with on Friday he was focused solely on winning those medals for the team, he said.
The Australians were pipped for gold in both those events – though it took world records on both occasions to beat them – and Chalmers now has some much-needed recovery time before he goes for another win on Saturday.
“I probably didn’t think that I’d be in the 50m freestyle final – I knew tonight was going to be a very tough triple (three races) and I pride myself on my relay so I wanted to make sure my first swim and my last swim of the night were my best,” he said.
“But it’s great having 24 hours to reset, refresh, get as much recovery in as I can and go again tomorrow night.
“Every time I race I back myself in, so let’s hope for the best.”
Chalmers was full of praise for 20-year-old Crooks, who emerged as the semi-final leader with a surprise 20.3 second swim.
“It’s amazing. I love guys coming out of nowhere and achieving great things,” Chalmers said.
“To go 20.3, he probably deserves the gold medal tomorrow night. It’ll be amazing for the Cayman Islands and amazing for our events going forward.”
Meanwhile, Emma McKeon shapes as a hot favourite to take out the women’s 50m freestyle final, and teammate Meg Harris should be right behind her.
Both broke the 24-second mark in the heats and semis in a show of strong form heading into the decider.
Like Chalmers, McKeon claimed the 100m freestyle gold earlier in the week and will be looking to repeat those feats to add to Australia’s tally.
Harris has also proven a strong 50m freestyle performer over long-course, with the 20-year-old to eye the shortcourse podium on Saturday night.
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