Next stop Hong Kong then Brisbane for Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers

 

  

Swimming Australia, October 27, 2016: Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers will arrive into Brisbane next week primed for the Hancock Prospecting Australian Short Course Championships after notching his third victory of the Fina Swimming World Cup in Tokyo overnight.

The 2016 Rio 100m freestyle champion has already made a big impression in the 2020 Olympic city, adding the 200m freestyle to his stunning 100m freestyle win on night one – his third win from two meets in the Asian World Cup cluster.

The final leg of the Fina/airweave short course series is set down for Hong Hong this weekend.

Chalmers will arrive into Brisbane early next week for the three day Australian Championships at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre, Chandler, starting on Thursday.

The return of the Rio heroes will also see inform backstroke world champions Mitch Larkin and Emily Seebohm and Rio Olympic silver medallist Maddie Groves.

Al three continued their podium runs last night, Larkin finishing second in the 200m backstroke, Seebohm, second in the 100m backstroke and third in the 50m butterfly finals with Groves taking silver in her specialist 200m butterfly.

Chalmers will contest the 50, 100 and 200m freestyle events in Brisbane, where he will again meet fellow Rio relay bronze medallist, dual Olympian and triple Australian champion Cam McEvoy and a rejuvenated London Olympian Tommaso D’Orsogna, third to Chalmers and Russian Vladimir Morozov in a frantic 100m final in Tokyo.

Last night in Tokyo saw Chalmers again challenge the Junior World record of 1:41.95, with his time of 1:42.42 – a time that saw him edge past Grant Hackett on the Australian All-Time Top Ten.

The only Ausralians to have swum faster are McEvoy (140.80), Ian Thorpe (1:41.10), Thomas Fraser-Holmes (1:41.77) and D’Orsogna (1:42.26).

Chalmers proved too strong for Japanese pair Yuuki Kobori (1:43.2) and Daiya Seto (1:44.11), with another Australian youngster Clyde Lewis (1:44.37) fourth, just ahead of Belgium’s Olympic 100m freestyle silver medallist Pieter Timmers (1:44.45) and Great Britain’s 2015 long course world champion over 200m James Guy (1:44.63)

Seebohm was second to the seemingly unstoppable Hungarian Olympic champion Katrina Hosszu in the 100m backstroke, clocking 56.59 to Hosszu’s 55.59.

Hosszu was back in the water soon after, powering to her second gold medal in the women’s 200 fly in 2:03.92 with Australia’s Maddie Groves second in 2:04.65, while Hungary’s  Suzsanna Jakabos took third in 2:06.54.

The men’s 200 backstroke final saw Japan’s Masaki Kaneko and Australia’s Mitch Larkin. go head-to-head with Kaneko holding off a late charge from the Australian world champion - out-touching him 1:49.89 to 1:49.91.

Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen collected her second gold medal of the session with a top showing in finals of the women’s 50 fly ahead of Japan’s Rikako Ikee with  Australia’s Emily Seebohm clocking 25.79 for the bronze medal.

Meanwhile in an extraordinary swim, Jamaican Alia Atkinson set a new world record in the 50m breaststroke – clocking a sizzling 28.64 – taking 0.16 off American Jessica Hardy’s previous mark of 28.80 set in the now banned super suit era in 2009.