Silver for Chalmers in fingertip-finish sprint
FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 IT took a superhuman effort from the best all-round swimmer in the world to stop Aussie sprint star Kyle Chalmers from completing his collection of major titles last night.
Still just 21, the South Australian came agonisingly close to capturing his first world title in the men’s 100m freestyle only to be denied by an eyepopping performance by American Dressel.
A winner of seven gold medals at the most recent world titles two years ago, Dressel took the gold medal in 46.96 seconds, the fastest time ever in a textile suit.
The only person who has ever gone quicker was Brazilian Cesar Cielo whose 46.91 at the 2009 world championship in Rome was aided by the nowbanned super suits that made everyone swim faster than speedster Caeleb they really could. Chalmers took the silver in 47.08 — the fifth-fastest time in history — after charging home on the last lap and nearly catching Dressel after making a slow start of the blocks.
“I gave it my absolute all tonight; 47.0 is a very quick time. I couldn’t really believe it when I saw that and to see Caeleb go 46.9 is absolutely mind-blowing,” Chalmers said. “It is really positive for me leading into Tokyo (Olympics).”
Chalmers will head to Tokyo as the reigning Olympic, Commonwealth and Pan Pac champion. Only the world title has eluded him but losing to Dressel has him fired up. “I enjoy racing against him. He is an unbelievable athlete,” Chalmers said. OUTSPOKEN American Lilly King has lost her appeal against a shock disqualification. After an appeal process that lasted more than eight hours, Olympic champion King learned she would not be competing in the 200m breaststroke semi-finals.
King touched the wall first in her 200m breaststroke heat at Gwangju in a time that would have qualified her second fastest for the semi-finals.
However, she looked astounded when she emerged from the pool to discover she had been disqualified. Officials claimed King had not touched the wall with both hands at the same time at the first turn.