What an unreal start to the 2023 World Swimming Championships in 1st on the medal tally by our Aussie Dolphins Swim Team as they collected four gold including some world records best being broken on the first day of eight in Fukuoka, Japan.
First of all, hats off to Sam Short who won the Men’s 400m Free after he blew Ahmed Hafnaoui (Tunisia) away with a huge smile on his face once he touched the end of the wall on what has been a close finish towards the last 50m metres (3:40:68).
Then how good was Ariarne Titmus when she got away pretty comfortably against the likes of Katie Ledecky, Erika Fairweather & Summer McIntosh also in the Women’s 400m Free that gave her the chance to set that new WR time (3:35:38).
Really good competition there that made Ariarne push back better at her best, having just reclaimed the World Record books off McIntosh when the Canadian previously bested Titmus with that WR category during their national swim trials earlier this year in Toronto (3:56.08).
It’s not just Short & Titmus making such a brilliant show, but our Dolphins also made a big team display over in the men’s and women’s 4 x 100 freestyle relays as well.
Love how Kyle Chalmers always brings us home when he got the chance to dive him with 100m to go & he too went from 2nd right to gifting Aussies the gold in 1st (3:10:16) where his finishing was absolutely unbelievable to watch that wowed Italy’s Thomas Ceccon.
And in the women, great to see Mollie O’Callaghan wrap up her first shift with a decent lead, so her team-mates to build some momentum by going the extra mile as the race goes on. Not only they were absolutely too good v the likes of USA & China, but they also broke another WR time as well (3:27:96).
Let’s hope the Dolphins can stay on top with more gold up for grabs going into the Day 2 finals later tonight.
