Aussies rampant with five golds
DOMINANT: HOST NATION TURN ON THE POWER IN POOL
Cate Campbell surges to two Games records.
Gold Coast
Kyle Chalmers led an Aussie one-two in the 200 metres freestyle and anchored an emphatic relay win as the hosts grabbed a stunning five gold medals in the Commonwealth Games pool yesterday.
Chalmers, the Olympic 100m freestyle champion, made a trademark last-lap surge to take 200m gold in a personal best of one minute 45.56 seconds, the second fastest time in the world this year.
Chalmers then claimed his second Commonwealth gold in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay victory as Australia dominated the second evening, with sprint queen Cate Campbell again in record-breaking form.
Campbell, who anchored Australia to a world record as they won the 4x100m freestyle relay on Thursday, broke the Games mark with 23.88 seconds in her 50m freestyle semifinal.
She was under world-record pace for most of the one-length race before finishing just 0.21sec outside Swede Sarah Sjostrom’s world record of 23.67sec.
Chalmers continues to grow in stature after becoming the first Australian man in 48 years to win the Olympic 100m freestyle title in Rio two years ago.
He beat Mack Horton in the Games selection trials last month and repeated the feat yesterday, improving his time by 0.93sec.
Horton backed up his Rio Olympic 400m freestyle gold with victory in the event in Thursday’s Games final.
Meanwhile, Campbell continued her sizzling form at the Gold Coast meet with another record in the 50m freestyle semifinal.
Looking ahead to the possibility of a clean sweep of her events at the meet – the 50m/100m freestyle, 50m butterfly, 4x100m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay – she added: “I haven’t even thought that far. It’s all about my next process rather than looking towards results.”
To cap a barn-storming night for Australia, there was further gold for Mitch Larkin (100m backstroke), Clyde Lewis (400m individual medley) and Emma McKeon (100m butterfly). –