Horton makes waves in 200m but Cartwright not so lucky
MACK Horton has sounded his intentions in a blistering 200m freestyle heat but the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games swim trials’ new cutthroat format claimed its first big-name scalp.
Horton said before the meet he would not take the blue riband event seriously despite being the defending champion, as he focused on the 400m and 1500m at the four-day trials in the Games pool.
However, he appears have changed his tune.
Dual world titles contestant Alex Graham topped the to 200m heats on the opening day, just 0.34sec ahead of Rio 400m gold medallist Horton. Graham’s time of 1min46.72 sec put him ninth on Australia’s all-time 200m list.
In the most stacked event of the trials, Olympic 100m freestyle gold medallist Kyle Chalmers was third fastest ahead of multiple national champion Cam McEvoy and Australia’s No.1 200m swimmer Clyde Lewis.
But one of the pre-race favourites – 2017 world titles revelation Jack Cartwright – missed the top-eight cut for tonight’s final. Under the new format, no semi-finals will be held, ensuring cutthroat heats with the eight fastest moving straight to the medal race.
Horton insisted after his impressive heat his sprint focus was still the 4x200m relay team, not the 200m crown.