Wilson & Campbell snare spoils at Swimming World Championships

NSWIS swimmers were in fine form on Friday night snaring silver spoils, with Cate Campbell and Matthew Wilson both claiming individual silver medals at the Nambu University Aquatic Centre.

Having already won two gold medals for relay events this week in the Women’s 4x100m Freestyle and 4x100m Mixed Medley, Campbell captured silver in the first event of the night – the highly anticipated Women’s 100m Freestyle.

Diving in from lane from lane five, the triple Olympian hit the wall in 52.43 – just three one hundredths of a second ahead of Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom – to secure second spot and her third podium finish of the meet. Fellow Dolphin Emma McKeon, who’s proudly powering through her program, touched in 52.75 to place fourth, while America’s Olympic champion Simone Manuel won the gold from lane one in 52.04.

“I put in a really stellar performance,” Campbell said post-race in the mix zone.

“It’s been a great week for me in the pool and to come away with a silver medal, that’s nothing to be sneezed at.

“My goal coming in here has been to shift the focus off the outcome and look at the races I put together.”

Later in the evening Wilson backed up his world-record-equalling semi-final performance in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke, powering home in 2:06.68 – only one one hundredth of second behind last night’s time – to take home the silver. Already a gold medallist from the mixed medley relay, the 20-year-old finished behind Russia’s Anton Chupkov, who set a new world record of 2:06.12. Dolphin Zac Stubblety-Cook also swum in the final, placing a solid fourth 2:07.36.

“I came in here with the goal of just going into the finals and doing my best,” Wilson said.

“To equal the world record yesterday was a big shock to me and I’ve only gone 0.01 over what I did yesterday which was a flat out effort, so I was very happy with that.”

Wrapping up the night, Australia claimed its fourth relay world title at the 2019 World Swimming Championships in South Korea, after the Men’s 4x200m Freestyle team stormed to victory in a new Oceania record time of 7:00.85.

Showcasing the Dolphins’ team spirit, Australia now boasts four of the five relay titles that have so far been on offer, after victories in the Women’s 4x100m Freestyle, 4x100m Mixed Medley and the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle.The quartet of Clyde Lewis (1:45.58), Kyle Chalmers (1:45.37), Alex Graham (1:45.05) and Mack Horton (1:44.85) proved too strong for the hotly contested field, which saw Russia nab silver in 7:01.81 and the USA receive bronze in 7:01.98.

At the conclusion of night six, Australia sits second on the medal tally with five gold, six silver and three bronze medals.