Australia Wins Double Relay Gold

In the space of 15 minutes, the Australian swim team stormed home to claim gold in both the men’s and women’s 4x100m relays to sit on top of the medal table of the World Championships in Singapore.

And just 0.02 prevented Sam Short from adding a third gold to the Dolphins tally in the men’s 400m free after Olympic champion Lukas Martens out touched him at the finish. Short touched in 3:42.37 while Kim Woomin clocked 3:42.60.

But it was the blend of experience and youth that best pleased Australian head coach Rohan Taylor who has clearly stated that the Dolphins are playing the long game to the LA Games.

Up first, the women’s relay team led with experienced campaigners Mollie O’Callaghan and Meg Harris followed by teenagers Milla Jansen, 18, and New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holder Olivia Wunsch, 19.

Olympic gold medallists O’Callaghan and Harris had put Australia in a strong position after the first two legs but from there America – even without an ill Gretchen Walsh – was expected to finish on top.

Instead, it was a barnstorming finish from Jansen and then Wunsch to continue Australia’s peerless recent dominance in this event – a dominance that extends back to 2017. The Dolphins touched in 3:30.60.

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Then it was the men’s turn.

And it was that man Kyle Chalmers – watched on by his grandparents who hadn’t seen Chalmers race internationally since 2015 – who again put his hand up to claim the title of greater finisher in world swimming history.

The triple Olympian and recent 100m silver medallist from Paris Games, went from half-a-body-length behind in third place to comfortably first in the space of 50m, before powering away in the final metres to touch in 46.53s and finish the work of Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor, and Max Giuliani.

The time of 3:08.97 was a championship record.

In the night’s other final: Canadian Summer McIntosh claimed gold in the women’s 400m. Dolphin Lani Pallister was able to stick with McIntosh for around 250m, but as she began to fade in the back end, the Australian was passed by China’s Li Bingjie and Katie Ledecky, ultimately taking fourth place in a PB of 3:58.87.

Swimming Australia