The Australian swimming team has had an outstanding start to the World Aquatics Championships, winning two gold and a silver to open the competition.<\/p>\n
Australia’s men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle relay teams both claimed gold, while Sam Short won silver in the men’s 400 metre freestyle.<\/p>\n
The all-conquering women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team won gold, ahead of the US in second and the Netherlands in third, to extend a major championship winning run that began with a world record set at the 2018 Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n
The Australian men’s team followed up just minutes later with a stunning come-from-behind win anchored by veteran Kyle Chalmers to set a championship record of 3:08.07, ahead of Italy, with the US favourites in third.<\/p>\n
Chalmers dived in with Australia in third place after earlier legs by Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Maximilliam Giuliani, but stormed home in 46.53 seconds to secure the victory.<\/p>\n
“It’s so good to be part of a relay team that’s so young and hungry and eager to have success in LA like I am,” Chalmers said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve won bronze, bronze, silver. I really desperately want to win a gold medal in a few years’ time.”<\/p>\n
Southam said the goal for himself, Taylor and Giuliani “was just to give Kyle a punter’s hope”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kyle Chalmers dived in for the final leg after his teammates gave him a “punter’s hope” of claiming gold. (Reuters: Tingshu Wang)<\/p>\n
“And we all did our job extraordinarily well, but we came together and represented the country, so there’s no greater honour, I think, and to do it in a relay is so much more special than an individual event,” Southam said.<\/p>\n
Giuliani said the result, on the first day of the swimming competition in Singapore, was “unbelievable”.<\/p>\n
“We spoke about it the first day we came together on staging \u2026 and to deliver on that in great fashion \u2014 I mean championship record [and] we weren’t too far off the world record,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I think we’ve got a whole lot of potential in this team.”<\/p>\n
‘A strong set-up for LA and Brisbane’<\/p>\n
The women’s race was equally dramatic.<\/p>\n
Mollie O’Callaghan led out and established a lead by the first change, which was extended in the following two legs swum by Meg Harris and Milla Jansen.<\/p>\n
In the final leg, Olivia Wunsch was chased down by Olympic relay gold medallist Torri Huske, who turned at the 350m mark in first place.<\/p>\n
But Wunsch turned on the afterburners to reclaim first place, touching the wall in 3:30.6 seconds.<\/p>\n
“I just wanted to power home and give it all I had and it’s really exciting to be able to stand up with a gold medal today,” Wunsch said.<\/p>\n
“I love racing and I love anchoring a relay, so that was really exciting.”<\/p>\n
O’Callaghan said the team was “very nervous leading up to this”.<\/p>\n
“I thought I’ve just got to try my best for these three girls and especially the girls in the heat,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s nice to know that we have a strong set-up for LA and Brisbane and, yeah, I’m very confident in these girls and it’s going to be a great week.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gretchen Walsh was a late omission from the US women’s relay team. (Reuters: Tingshu Wang)<\/p>\n
The US team had been rocked by a case of gastroenteritis that has gone through the team after a staging camp in Thailand.<\/p>\n
Just minutes before the final, multiple Olympic relay gold medallist Gretchen Walsh pulled out of the team.<\/p>\n
But Huske said the team was not making excuses.<\/p>\n
“I don’t want to speak to how much it’s affected us necessarily,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve done a really good job in staying resilient.”<\/p>\n
‘Happy to be back’<\/p>\n
Earlier in the night, Short fell agonisingly short of a gold medal, losing by just 0.02 seconds to German world record holder Lukas Martens.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sam Short fell short of a gold medal by just 0.02 seconds.\u00a0 (Supplied: Delly Carr\/Swimming Australia)<\/p>\n
Short’s time of 3:42.37 was 0.3 seconds slower than the time he swam in the morning’s heats.<\/p>\n
But rather than express disappointment, Short said he was pleased to be back on a world championship podium after previously taking gold at the 2023 championships in Fukuoka.<\/p>\n
“So happy to be back on the podium,” he said.<\/p>\n