King Kyle reigns supreme in 100m
RIO Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers sent a clear warning to America’s reigning world champion Caeleb Dressel with the fastest 100m freestyle of the year at the Australian world championship trials at Chandler.
Chalmers rated last night’s personal best time of 47.35 seconds to cement a place as Australia’s representative in the event in South Korea next month “a good solid race”.
He beat Clyde Lewis (48.46) and Gold Coaster Cameron McEvoy (48.66).
But Chalmers knows it is going to have to be faster.
“I need to work on my speed if I’m going to take on Dressel,” he said. “I want to win. I don’t swim to make up the numbers.”
In saying that, Chalmers is full of confidence and looking forward to getting into the team environment in the lead-up to the worlds.
“It’s really good to be fully fit without any concerns. When I went into Rio I was under no pressure. No one knew who I was. Then you become Olympic champion and you’re suddenly under pressure.
“I had my heart operation and a back problem and you start wondering, ‘will I ever swim that fast again?’ I think every athlete goes through those times. It is the ones who rise above it who do great things.”
Chalmers’ outstanding performance was mirrored by backstroke specialist Mitch Larkin whose personal best 1:55.72 in the 200m individual medley was also the fastest in the world this year.
Should he go on and win the world championship in Gwangju, Larkin and his coach Dean Boxall will have some serious decisions to make before the Tokyo Olympics as the backstroke and medley events will clash.
“I can do it all at the worlds but not at Tokyo,” he said. “If I become world champion in the medley things will become pretty interesting.
“It’s all swimming and I have fun with it but I don’t do as much work on the medley as I do on my backstroke.”