Tokyo Olympics 2021: Elijah Winnington, Brendon Smith headline big Aussie night in pool

The good news: Jack McLoughlin and Elijah Winnington are both in the 400m freestyle final. Now the concerning news: they have to find significant improvement to be competitive.

Australia’s 400m freestylers Jack McLoughlin and Elijah Winnington tied for first place in their heat swim, but they will have to slash their times to be competitive in Sunday morning’s Tokyo Olympic final.

The two Australian’s posted a slow heat time of 3min45.20 - enough to make the final, but also raising concerns about whether the Olympic pressure is starting to take its toll.

McLoughlin and Winnington who will race in lanes two and six for the final and will have to go several seconds faster to push the German favourite Henning Muhlleitner, who looked smooth in his earlier heat, clocking 3min43.67.

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Elijah Winnington and Jack McLoughlin will need to slash their times to be competitive.

Muhlleitner had started to post world-class times just before the pandemic hit and Saturday night’s marker may have come as a small surprise to his Olympic rivals in an event that is wide open with Mack Horton and the controversial Chinese star Sun Yang missing.

The Tokyo Olympics are the first major competition without Horton, who failed to qualify in the top two at the Australian trials earlier this year, and Yang, who was banned for four years after a protracted legal battle surrounding a destroyed blood drugs sample.

Former world record holder Ian Thorpe said on Channel Seven that the race in solving the Australians was stressful.

“Can I say, if they were 0.5 of a second slower they would have missed this final,” Thorpe said. “That’s how tight this final is to go through. That’s cutting it pretty fine, I have to say, for both guys in that 400.”

Twenty-six year old McLoughlin, who has the experience of competing at the Rio Olympics, shrugged off his swim as “just a heat swim”.

“It’s always a game in these events, like the four (hundred metre events) and up, about trying to get through to the final without damaging yourself too much, but it’s also a pretty tight game with how fast everyone is swimming right now”

German Henning Muhlleitner looks the one to beat.

Winnington, 21, said he had felt the pressure of competing in his first big international meet.

“I was actually feeling a bit of pressure yesterday,’’ he said.

“I was quite nervous about making the final. It’s actually the first time I’ve ever swum internationally, first time I’ve raised so many of those guys so I was fortunate I was next to Jack.”

‘Faster than I thought’: Aussie’s shock Games statement

Victorian Brendon Smith - a rank outsider coming into Tokyo - has set himself up as the favourite for Sunday morning’s final of the mens 400m individual medley after storming home in the Olympic heats to smash the Oceania record.

Smith, who hails from a marathon swimming family, showed an astonishing burst of speed to mow down Italian champion Alberto Rizzetti, American Jay Litherland and Frenchman Leon Marchand in the fastest heat.

Knowing he had to touch ahead to ensure a finals spot, Smith roared home with his final 50m split of 28.05s, more than a half a second quicker than his rivals. He set the new Australian record at 4min09.47.

With slight understatement, Smith, who trains at Nunawading, said of his effort -

the first Australian to clock under 4minutes 10 sec - “that was pretty good’’.

Brendon Smith has set himself up nicely for the 400 IM final.

He added about his spectacular finishing burst: “that’s something me and my coach Wayne Lawes have really worked on, trying to finish every race really well, so its something I’ve always done.

“It felt fast, but to go 4.09.2 is probably faster than I thought it was.

Asked if he could go faster, Smith said: “we’ll see”.

The top American to qualify, Chase Kalisz has gone four seconds faster, but that was several years ago and it’s unclear if Kalisz was simply foxing in his heat.

The top six competitors all went under 4min10sec, setting up a crunch final.

Smith had earned his spot in the Australian Olympic team after setting a new Australian record at the trials.