Mack seals relay glory
MACK Horton has steered Australia’s 4x200m freestyle men’s team to a stunning victory at the world swimming titles in South Korea.
Horton anchored the Australian team also comprising Clyde Lewis, Kyle Chalmers and Alex Graham to gold in a time of 7min 00.85sec last night. Australia registered its fifth gold of the world titles by claiming the relay win ahead of Russia and the US.
Earlier, only something special it seemed would deny Cate Campbell victory in the 100m freestyle final.
Unfortunately for the Australian, American champion Simone Manuel produced it in Gwangju last night.
Manuel clocked 52.04sec — the fastest time of the year — to defend her world title and claim 100m gold from lane one, relegating Campbell to silver. Campbell — the 2013 world champion — finished 0.39sec behind Manuel. World record holder, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, took bronze.
“I didn’t see her [Manuel] out there. I was locked in a battle with Sarah,” said Campbell, who was in lane four going toe to toe with Sjostrom.
“But it’s been a great week for me at the pool. To come away with a silver medal at a world championships is nothing to be sneezed at.”
Also last night, Australia’s Matthew Wilson claimed 200m breaststroke silver after Russian Anton Chupkov won in a world record time.
Chupkov clocked 2:06.12 to shave 0.55sec off the mark shared by Wilson and Japan’s Ippei Watanabe. Wilson had equalled the former world record in the 200m semi-finals on Thursday night. CAELEB Dressel has broken Michael Phelps’ world record in the 100m butterfly.
The American won his semi-final in 49.50sec last night, touching 0.32sec quicker than Phelps’ mark set at the 2009 world meet in Rome at the height of the high-tech suit era. Dressel was out in 22.83 — 0.53 under Phelps’ pace — and came home in 26.67 to lead eight men into tonight’s final.
He was a whopping 1.44 ahead of Russia’s Andrei Minakov, the second-quickest qualifier. IN A timely confidence boost a year out from the Tokyo Olympics, Australia’s women’s water polo team won bronze last night.
In the last major tournament ahead of the Olympics, Australia edged Hungary 10-9 to continue their keen rivalry with the European powerhouse.