We saw two stunning swims last night that captured Australia’s golden moments on Day 1 of the 2022 FINA World Short Course Championships, as the Dolphins are currently in 1st on the medal tally right now with two gold – plus one silver & bronze.
Let’s start off with Lani Pallister in the Women’s 400m Freestyle Final, having held the whole way through on her own from Lane 5. She was side-by-side with New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather for the first half distance before Lani pulled that gap further in front & Erika couldn’t catch her on the way home. It’s good to see Lani collect her first World Championship gold with praise from the legendary Dawn Fraser in the stands alongside her Mum.
Then we turn our attention to the Women’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final consisting of Mollie O’Callaghan, Madi Wilson, Meg Harris & Emma McKeon. It was a slow fire off from O’Callaghan but eventually made up some lost time up to 3rd by the time she handed over to Wilson – who did a great job keeping the Aussies not far within Team USA’s radar.
Although McKeon dived in from 3rd after Harris to wrap it all up for the Dolphins, but she has changed everything going into the last 50-metre dash that blew USA’s Erika Brown away – not only with another Aussie gold but she also helped smash the new world record time of 3:25.43. Such a huge moment we witnessed from the golden girls who made the whole country proud, particularly McKeon as they’re now first time world champions in this short course meet.
Plus, shoutout to Kaylee McKeown when she overcame her poor start up to P3 in the Women’s 200m IM final, but couldn’t nail down Team USA on time. And same goes to the Men’s relay team in the 4 x 100m Free; Although they couldn’t catch down the Italians in silver, but hats off to Matt Temple (2nd in-line) who pushed himself up into the Top 3, as well as Kyle Chalmers with a good finish to his swim.
One down, five days to go – with Australia looking to hunt down more gold medals on-offer later tonight on night No.2.
