Freestyle relay girls now “All Conquering” after world championship gold in Kazan
Swimming Australia, August 2, 2015: Australia’s 4x100m girls freestyle relay team are now officially “all-conquering” after adding the coveted world title to their long list of achievements at the 16th FINA World Championships in Kazan tonight.
The team of Bronte and Cate Campbell, Emma McKeon and newcomer, Olympic backstroker Emily Seebohm set a new Championship record, closing the door on the time set by the Netherlands back in the “super suit” era in Rome in 2009.
The Dolphins clocked 3:31.48 – 0.24 under the old Dutch mark – by a team ironically coach by Australia’s head coach Jacco Verhaeren and just 0.50secs outside their own world mark of 3:30.98 set in Glasgow last year.
But they sure did give it a nudge.
Seebohm, who earnt her place on the team with an eye-catching lead off personal best of 53.93 in the morning’s heats led off again, improving her split to 53.92, before handing over to the flying McKeon who took the lead for the Dolphins in a 53.57.
Then it was Bronte Campbell’s turn to sizzle and sizzle she did, clocking the fastest leg of the night, a ripping 51.77 – and the fastest split in a 4x100m freestyle relay and the second fastest relay split ever, giving world champion sister Cate an unassailable lead.
The defending world champion powered home comfortably to split 52.22 and anchor one of the most impressive relays in world championship history.
The Australians are now the reigning Olympic, World, Pan Pacific and Commonwealth champions and world, Olympic, Pan Pacific and Commonwealth record holders – one of Australia’s finest sporting teams.
And the fact that Seebohm, Madi Wilson, Mel Wright (who was a member of the Olympic, Pan Pacific and Commonwealth Games teams) and Bronte Barratt qualified second in the heats showed the depth of Australia’s sprint freestyle talent – on par with the Olympic and World Championship winning teams of 2004, 2005 and 2007.
Australia’s relay girls are certainly in good hands with relay coach and coach of the Campbell sisters Simon Cusack and National head coach Verhaeren, two of the shrewdest tacticians in world swimming.
There was further joy for the Dolphins and 22-year-old Jessica Ashwood who left the pool tonight with a bronze glow and two more golden opportunities ahead of her at these championships following a breakthrough opening day for our rising stars on the road to Rio 2016.
The Vince Raleigh coached swimmer admitted she “went for it” this morning and left nothing in the tank from the heats to qualify and then emptied it again in the final tonight clocking a new Australian record time of 4:03.34.
“I’ve been waiting for this, so yeah it’s a good feeling! Knowing that it’s really hard to get up in the morning and do a good heat swim I knew that I would be able to back up and do a good job tonight,” Ashwood said.
“This year was the perfect year to turn things around. I sort of had trouble thinking that I deserved to get a medal so [my sport psychologist] helped me through that over the past couple of weeks. And so it was good to get in there and tell myself ‘you deserve this, you’ve done the training, so just go for it.’
Her Australian record tally now stands at three; holding the national record now in the 400, 800 and 1500m freestyle events with both the 800 and 1500 free still to come in Kazan.
“We have done more distance training than sprint training so I thought if anything I would lose a bit of time in the 400 and my 1500 would be better so doing a good 400 means I’ll be able to a good 1500 and 800.”
Her place on the podium also broke a 24-year medal drought in the event, with Hayley Lewis the last Australian female to medal in the 400m freestyle back in 1991 – two years before Ashwood was born.
“I touched and then I didn’t want to turn around but then I saw the lights on my block and I was like ‘I got a medal!’, so then I was happy to turn around,” Ashwood said.
Ashwood used her distance training to pull away in the final 50 metres, digging deep to hold off both Great Britain’s Jaz Carlin (4:03.74) and New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle (4:04.38) earning a bronze medal in the process.
Joining Ashwood on the podium was the USA’s Katie Ledecky who threatened the world record with her time of 3:59.13 for gold and Sharon Van Rouwendaal securing the silver in 4:03.02.
Men’s 100m Breaststroke Semi-Final
The momentum continued to build off the back of Ashwood’s breakthrough bronze medal and Jake Packard was enjoying the ride. Packard, who set a new personal best time in the heats of the men’s 100m breaststroke, dipped even further under the minute tonight stopping the clock at 59.66. The time was quick enough to earn him a place in the final and a chance to move his way up the international ranks in a highly competitive field.
Great Britain’s Adam Peaty will be the one to beat after recording a new Championship record of 58.18 in the semi-finals with Cameron Van Der Burgh ranked second in 58.49.
Women’s 100m Butterfly Semi-Final
Earlier in the night, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist in this event Emma McKeon (57.59) progressed as fifth fastest for tomorrow night’s final, swum before her gold medal leg in the 4x100m freestyle relay. While her training partner Madeline Groves showed good speed for her 200m fly later in the week, to finish in 11th place with a time of 58.13. Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom set a sizzling pace in the women’s 100m butterfly semi-finals, clocking a new world record with a time of 55.74 to take top spot into the final tomorrow night.
Women’s 200m Individual Medley Semi-Final
With her main event still to come, the Sunshine Coast’s Tessa Wallace (2:14.34) blew out the cobwebs with a semi-final swim in the women’s 200m individual medley. Wallace will take 16th place overall in the medley but keep an eye out for her on day five when she steps up to show off her skills in the women’s 200m breaststroke. Hungarian medley master Katinka Hosszu lead from start to finish, stopping the clock at 2:06.84 to move through as favourite for the final tomorrow night.
In other events…
Men’s 400m Freestyle Final
Gold – Sun Yang, China, 3:42.58
Silver – James Guy, Great Britain, 3:43.75
Bronze – Ryan Cochrane, Canada, 3:44.59
Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Final
Gold - France, 3:10.74
Silver – Russia, 3:11.19
Bronze – Italy, 3:12.53
Men’s 50m Butterfly Semi-Final
The top three swimmers through to tomorrow night’s final:
1. Florent Manaudou, France, 22.84
2. Nicholas Santos, Brazil, 23.05
3. Laszlo Cseh, Hungary, 23.06
Australian Medal Tally
Gold: 1
Silver: 0
Bronze: 1
The heats will continue tomorrow morning from 9:30am local time and will be available LIVE on 7TWO and 7swimming.com.au from 4:30pm AEST. The finals will be also be replayed on the seven network prior to the heats, check your local guides for details.
For more information on the event go to www.fina.org.au
To access images from the 2015 FINA World Championships please follow this link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j6pc6moaou3paq3/AABTt9rb6ABWakxlIjac2tZna?dl=0 – all image credit to Swimming Australia Ltd.
Issued on behalf of Swimming Australia by
Ian Hanson| Media Manager
Ian Hanson| Media Manager Triathlon Australia Managing Director
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