Tokyo Olympics 2021: Emma McKeon smashes 100m freestyle Olympic record, Recap Day 5, Australia's gold medal tally

The incredible depth of Australia’s female swimmers has left the national selectors in a pickle and incredibly, none of the swimmers that secured a finals berth are likely to swim the final.

The incredible depth of Australia’s female swimmers has left the national selectors in a pickle about the makeup of the team for today’s 4x200m freestyle final after rising teenage starlet Mollie O’Callaghan broke the junior world record in the heats.

The Australians are odds on to win the gold medal and break the world record no matter which combination they use but a pre-race decision to go with four different swimmers in the heats and the final means that the fastest four are not guaranteed to be in the final.

The reason is complicated - a combination of the peculiar rules for picking relays - and a decision by the selectors to reward as many competitors as possible.

Under the rules, countries can enter up to eight swimmers in relays - with each of them getting a medal - so Australia’s selectors decided to go down that route.

For the heats, they picked 17-year-old O’Callaghan, along with Meg Harris, Brianna Throssell and Tamsin Cook.

That leaves Ariarne Titmus, Emma McKeon, Madi Wilson and Leah Neale to swim the final - after they filled the top four places at the trials.

That all made complete sense until O’Callaghan unleashed a stunning swim in the heats, stopping the clock at 1:55.11, a time so fast that she would have finished fifth in the individual 200m final, ahead of American superstar Katie Ledecky.

She also broke the junior world record of 1:55.43, set by China’s Yang Junxuan at the 2019 world championships.

“It was a massive PB, a very big one by about a second,” O’Callaghan said.

“Absolutely amazing, when I touched on, it was the best feeling of all.”

The selectors could still change the lineup for the final but are unlikely to because Titmus won the individual 200m title, McKeon is ranked No. 2 in Australia and Wilson made the final. Neale has to be picked because under the rules swimmers selected just for relays have to compete otherwise the team gets disqualified.

Although heat and finals swimmers both get medals, the makeup of Australian relays teams has been controversial before.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Leisel Jones was chosen to swim the breaststroke leg in the medley relay final despite finishing behind Brooke Hanson in the individual final.

Australia went on and won the gold.

IN THE HEATS

In the women's 100m free, Emma McKeon set a new Olympic record of 52.13s to qualify fastest in heat six, while Campbell also cruised to victory in her heat in 52.80s.

"52:13 and that is a new PB and she looked effortless in that last 50," Channel 7 commentator Basil Zempilas said.

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Fellow Seven commentator and Olympic legend Leisel Jones add this: "Well, she just put the world on notice with that race. She just looked beautiful."

"Whether she is in the best form that she's been this week. She looked great in the 100 fly. Also looked pretty good but the good thing is she's had a little bit of rest now.

"She's had about a day to rest up and feel fresh and boy, she looked fresh."

Emma McKeon broke an Olympic record amid more controversy in the pool.

McKeon said she's happy with the Olympic record and feels in great shape after dropping the 200m freestyle.

"I'm pretty happy with that. An Olympic record is pretty cool. But I guess I had like yesterday off an this morning off, so I think it freshened me up a bit."

"Usually I will have the 200, so to have that off at 600m of less racing, so I think that definitely helped me leading into this."

Campbell, who is determined to shrug the monkey off her back of the Rio Olympic disaster, ended up as the fourth fastest qualifier for Thursday’s semifinals.

Closing day five in the pool, McKeon and Campbell were rested in the 4x200m freestyle relay heats to be fresh for Thursday’s final, where Australia will go into the event as raging gold medal favourites.

Australian selectors picked Mollie O’Callaghan, Meg Harris, Brianna Throssell and Tamsin Cook to swim the heats, ensuring that if the team mirrors its top ranking and picks up a medal in Thursdays final, they will all get a medal.

O’Callaghan, just 17, led Australia off to a flying start clocking a cracking 1min55.11, which would have placed her fifth in the individual 200m and in the process beaten the US great Katie Ledecky.

Australia clocked 7min44.61 to be the fastest qualifiers ahead of the United States and China.

O’Callaghan has now put pressure on the Australian selectors to pick her for the final with her time, although it appears that the team may have already been pre-determined with Titmus, McKeon, Madi Wilson and the specialist relay swimmer Leah Neale pencilled in.

"We would be guessing. She (Neale) may be unwell. They may be saving her. Maybe perhaps one of the top swimmers, Emma McKeon or Ariarne Titmus, aren't swimming the final, but I don't see how we can do that. We have a team that can win this race and potentially break that world record as well," Channel 7 and Olympic legend Ian Thorpe said.

The heat members confirmed there will be four different swimmers for the final tomorrow.

"Yes, something Australia has been working towards for a long time, building such depth in the sport. I think it's so exciting we can have a whole fresh team coming in. The four of us wanted to get output in the best we could, to get the girls lane four.

"I'm just so honoured and privileged to be a part of this team. As everyone has said there is so much depth within the women's free siel in Australia. It's such a fight to get a spot. It's such a fight to get a spot. It's just an honour to get the girls through."

RECAP Day 5 in the blog below.

Originally published as Tokyo Olympics 2021: Emma McKeon smashes 100m freestyle Olympic record, Recap Day 5, Australia's gold medal tally

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