Australia

Aussie swimmers break national records, reach finals in Tokyo


Australia has enjoyed a productive opening session of the swimming program at the Tokyo Olympics, with two national records falling and several swimmers qualifying for finals.

Brendon Smith and Emma McKeon set new Australian marks in the heats of the men’s 400m individual medley and women’s 100m butterfly respectively.

Their performances were backed up by Elijah Winnington and Jack McLoughlin, who dead-heated in their heat of the men’s 400m freestyle to qualify for Sunday morning’s final.

Australia also qualified fastest for the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay final as it looks to win a third straight gold medal in the event.

With Cate Campbell and McKeon rested from the heat, Australia’s quartet of Mollie O’Callaghan, Meg Harris, Madi Wilson and Bronte Campbell still easily advanced to the final with the fastest qualifying time of 3 minutes and 31.73 seconds.

Australia holds the world and Olympic records in the 4x100m freestle relay.

Earlier, Smith showed no signs of nerves in his Olympic debut, topping the qualifying times for the men’s 400m individual medley.

Brendon Smith led qualifying for Sunday morning’s men’s 400m individual medley final.(

Reuters: Marko Djurica

)

The 21-year-old produced a stirring freestyle leg to win his heat, breaking his national record in the event with a time of 4:09.27.

Smith’s teammate Se-Bom Lee, also making his Games debut, was second in his heat with a time of 4:15.76 but did not progress to the final.

McKeon dipped under her national record in the opening preliminaries of the women’s 100m butterfly, stopping the clock in 55.82.

The 27-year-old, who was sixth in the event at the Rio Olympics, dead-heated with China’s Zhang Yufei in their heat, with both being the fastest qualifiers for the semi-finals.

Social media reaction, however, suggested McKeon — a two-time world championships medallist in the 100m butterfly — had been short changed in the official result in her heat.

Footage appeared to show her touching the wall first, clearly ahead of her Chinese rival.

Fellow Australian Brianna Throssell, who competed in the same heat as McKeon, scraped through to the semi-finals as the 16th fastest qualifier via a time of 58.08.

Winnington and McLoughlin arrived in Tokyo with the two fastest times in the men’s 400m freestyle this year.

They showed they were not overawed by the occasion in Tokyo, with Winnington leading the field at the 300m mark, while McLoughlin was in third place.

A frantic sprint in the final 100m saw the pair touch the wall together, with Kieran Smith of the US only 0.05 behind in third.

Winnington and McLoughlin, who beat defending Olympic champion Mack Horton at Australia’s Olympic trials last month, were the equal fourth fastest qualifiers for Sunday morning’s final.

They will be striving to win Australia’s seventh gold medal in the event.

Australia’s Matthew Wilson and Zac Stubblety-Cook were eliminated in the heats of the men’s 100m breaststroke.



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