Over the previous six days of swimming on the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, 52 Commonwealth Video games gold medals have been on supply. Because the meet concluded on Wednesday, Australia gained the final race of the night – the ladies’s 4x100m medley relay – to gather the nation’s twenty fifth gold. The Dolphins gained as many gold medals in Birmingham as England, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Northern Eire mixed – only one gold shy of claiming totally half of the accessible titles.
The superlative statistics don’t finish there. Australian gained seven of the eight relays, falling solely to England within the males’s medley relay. Swim queen Emma McKeon gained six gold medals – she alone sits fourth on the medal tally, forward of the complete New Zealand group. Australian swimmers swept the rostrum in 4 occasions: the lads’s 400m freestyle and the ladies’s 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle. And such was the energy and breadth of the Dolphins that there have been solely seven podiums throughout the complete meet that didn't function at the very least one Australian.
It was, in different phrases, a rare swim meet for the Australians. This isn't itself stunning – Australia has a protracted historical past of dominating the Commonwealth Video games, together with the swimming. Certainly on the final Video games on the Gold Coast, the Dolphins carried out barely higher, profitable 28 of fifty gold medals. However positioned into the broader context – following an emphatic return to Olympic kind at Tokyo 2020 final yr, and with many Australians backing up in Birmingham not lengthy after the world championships – and the indicators are constructive with two years to go till the Paris Olympics.
The performances are all of the extra spectacular given the media storm that hung over the meet, an almost-obsessive focus on the supposed love triangle between McKeon, freestyle king Kyle Chalmers and pop star turned swimmer Cody Simpson. Regardless of the distraction and its penalties for the psychological well being of a number of within the group, they managed to carry out when it counted.
Prior to now which may not have been assured – the Dolphins have beforehand struggled with controversy and the glare of the highlight (most famously on the 2012 Olympics). The group’s determination to ship dwelling teenager Isaac Cooper previous to the Video games for “wellbeing challenges” recalled these darkish days, however – past some terse phrases from Chalmers to the media – the Dolphins let their swimming do the speaking.
Tokyo stars McKeon, Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown led the cost. Titmus confirmed her energy throughout a number of distances by profitable the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle crowns. Whereas 15-year-old Canadian Summer time McIntosh was sizzling on Titmus’s heels within the 400m, the prodigy is just not but actually threatening. That can doubtless change by Paris, the place a three-way duel between Titmus, McIntosh and American Katie Ledecky might be the encounter of the meet. McKeown bought the higher of Canadian rival Kylie Masse in each the 100m and 200m backstroke, a repeat of the outcomes finally yr’s Olympics.
Titmus and McKeown are solely of their early 20s, however there's additionally a brand new, even youthful crop of swimmers progressing by means of the Australian ranks. Eighteen-year-old Mollie O’Callaghan gained the 100m freestyle and claimed silver within the 200m and the 50m backstroke. The Dean Boxall-coached teenager, who already has two Olympic gold medals to her title courtesy of Tokyo relay spots, has a brilliant future forward. Fellow teenager Elizabeth Dekkers missed out on the Olympics after misfiring finally yr’s trials, however bounced again in Birmingham – her 200m butterfly gold was her first win at a serious worldwide competitors.
Among the many males, Elijah Winnington backed up his latest world title to win the 400m freestyle. The 22-year-old was sizzling favorite to win gold in Tokyo solely to underperform; his latest kind means that was a blip that gained’t be repeated. Zac Stubblety-Prepare dinner added the 200m breaststroke gold to his Olympic crown, whereas rising stars William Yang and Flynn Southam carried out properly within the relays.
Australia’s para-swimmers have been additionally in effective kind on the Sandwell pool. Whereas the Video games embody only a fraction of the classes on supply on the Paralympics or world championships – solely six occasions for the lads and 6 for the ladies – the Australians gained half of the accessible races. Timothy Hodge broke the Video games document en path to gold within the 100m backstroke S9, whereas younger gun Jasmine Greenwood, simply 17, continued her rise with the 200m particular person medley SM10 title.
After all two years is a very long time in swimming. A lot can occur between now and the Paris Olympics – stars can rise and fall, kind can wane and wax. Chalmers’ future stays doubtful and whereas it appears doubtless McKeon will race by means of to the Video games (she has hinted as a lot), it isn't unattainable Australia’s most profitable ever Olympian may cling up her goggles earlier than then. However a golden exhibiting on the Commonwealth Video games has the Australian swim group well-placed on the highway to Paris.
Post a Comment