Dawn of a new era for Cate, says pool legend

CATE Campbell’s golden first night in the pool will make her unstoppable from here on, some of swimming’s biggest names have declared.

The 25-year-old on Thursday night produced the fastest relay swim in history – 51 seconds – as the Australian sprint relay team smashed the world record to claim gold.

And six-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Dawn Fraser said the feat will have planted a seed in Campbell that will only fortify her ahead of her individual events. “Now that she knows that she can swim a 51 flat, she’s got that in her mind and nothing’s going to stop her now,” Fraser said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets into the final of the 100m I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she breaks 52 seconds. She’s got it in her brain now, she knows where it hurts. She stepped up to it, which is fantastic.” Three-time Olympic gold medallist and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Stephanie Rice – who joined Fraser yesterday at the Longines Records Club at Broadbeach for its Women in Sport luncheon – said the performance by Campbell, sister Bronte, Emma McKeon and Shayna Jack would raise the energy of the entire team. Rice said both Campbell and the team would rightly be hunting redemption after what she described as a “really disappointing” outing at the Rio Olympics.

“For Cate, the way the meet is structured is really good,” she said. “Starting out with a relay, less pressure, obviously Cate is the one to beat, so there’s a lot of extra pressure other than what she’d be putting on herself to perform well off the back of Rio.

“To come out with a relay … it’s fun, and to have the world record and an awesome split – that would give her confidence for her individual races. “That’s going to help her mentally more than anything to step up and go ‘I’m ready, I’m here to do what I want to do’, and have redemption.” Rice, 29, also highlighted the efforts of the likes of 17-year-old Ariarne Titmus who claimed a silver medal in the 200m freestyle and said such performances is what the team needs heading into the next Olympics.