Fresh off his first gold World Championship medal from last night’s 4x100m Mixed Medley Relay, Matthew Wilson pushed the Men’s 200m Breaststroke World Record set over two years ago by Japan’s Ippei Watanabe of 2:06.67. Swimming under world record pace for the first 150m metres, the Adam Kable coached swimmer sailed through to take top seed in tonight’s semi-final with a time of 2:07.29. Just 0.13 seconds off his own Commonwealth and Australian record set earlier this year at the 2019 Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Championships, Wilson will swim out of lane four in this evening’s semi-final.
Zac Stubblety-Cook also posted an impressive heat swim in 2:09.05 to touch the wall third in his heat. The Pan Pac silver medallist will head in to tonight’s semi-finals as the fifth fastest qualifier.
Coming in as the top seed for the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay, Leah Neale, Madison Wilson, Brianna Throssel and Kiah Melverton, touched first in the final heat of the morning. In 7:50.64 the quartet held a strong lead from the get-go with Neale’s leg of the race placing the team in first position at the changeover (1:58.30). Wilson and Throssell gave the team a hefty lead with the fastest splits in the field (1:56.46) (1:56.70), before Melverton brought it home in 1:59.18.
Fresh off her sizzling split from last night’s gold medal winning relay, Cate Campbell was back in the pool for heats of the Women’s 100m Freestyle. Coming into the meet ranked number one in the world for 2019, Campbell is pursuing her second world title in the women’s blue riband event. In 53.36 the 2013 champion has qualified fourth for the semi-finals taking place tonight.
Reigning Olympic and world champion, USA’s Simone Manuel, topped the preliminary rounds in 53.10, with Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom not far behind in 53.11 with fellow Australian Emma McKeon in seventh in 53.58.
It will be Jenna Strauch in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke as the sole Australian after touching in 2:26.25 to rank 15th overall and move through to the semi-finals. The 2019 Australian Champion made her Dolphin debut at last year’s World Short Course championships in China and is making her LC debut on the Australian Dolphins team at this meet.
Jessica Hansen finished in 21st place overall after touching in 2:29.18, missing out on a spot in tonight’s semi-final.
Mingara Aquatic’s Bradley Woodward touched in 1:58.31 to place 18th overall in the Men’s 200m Backstroke.
Mitch Larkin withdrew from racing in the Men’s 200m Backstroke heats to focus on this evenings 200m IM final. Opting to rest in preparation for the race, Larkin will go in as the 5th fastest qualifier and Commonwealth Record holder, he will look to add to his individual medal tally after picking up bronze in the Men’s 100m Backstroke.
Competing tonight for the green and gold will be Olympic Champion Kyle Chalmers in the final of the Men’s 100m Freestyle, Cate Campbell and Emma McKeon in the semi-final of the Women’s 100m Freestyle, Matthew Wilson and Zac Stubblety-Cook in the 200m Breaststroke, Mitch Larkin in the final of the Men’s 200m IM, Jenna Strauch in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke semi-final and the final of the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle.
Finals this evening will start at 9pm (EST).
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