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Mollie O’Callaghan & Zac Stubblety Cook’s outstanding swims in their respective Finals puts Australia back into 2nd on Day 6 of the 2022 World Swimming Championships

by Sports Benches

We’re back into 2nd now on the medal tally for the Dolphins Swim Team, having snatched another two gold medals today thanks to Mollie O’Callaghan and Zac Stubblety-Cook after Day 6 of the 2022 World Swimming Championships.

Stubblety-Cook may not had the early momentum needed to stay ahead when he was battling outside the Top 3. The gamble to go all in the last 50m paid off however, when he came from behind with less than 100m to go before he trumped the whole field on the way home that secured his first World Championship Gold Medal in the Men’s 200m breaststroke.

Same goes to O’Callaghan over in the Women’s 100m Freestyle who was also initially off the pace. But likewise to what Stubblety-Cook did in the last-half, she began to rebound just in time up front towards a photo finish, and she has done it to upsurge Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem and Team USA’s Tori Huske for the gold she really wanted which is absolutely stunning.

Then there’s more than just the two outstanding swimmers on display where they took home another two silver medals.

Excellent job from Zac Incerti with the turnaround once he took over the baton from Elijah Winnington. His excellent spell in the last 100m puts them in 2nd after Stage 2 of the Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Final; That helped him paved an easy pathway for Sam Short & Mack Horton to bring it all the way home where they finished 2nd.

And how good was Jenna Strauch in the Women’s 200m breaststroke? Although she couldn’t hold off Team USA’s Lily King towards the very end of the wall, but it’s still an excellent swim – especially in the 2nd half where she caught up side-by-side to the frontrunners just in time for the climax of this race.

The hard work isn’t over going into the final two days with Kaylee McKeown in the Women’s 200m backstroke Final, Kiah Melverton in the Women’s 800m Freestyle Final & Matt Temple in the Men’s 100m butterfly Final – plus the Mixed 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay if possible tomorrow. Initially, Lani Pallister was set to compete in the Women’s 800m Freestyle tomorrow with Melverton for the gold but then COVID caught her which means she has to withdraw from the running & sit for at least a week in isolation.

For now, what a day for O’Callaghan & Stubblety-Cook who made our Aussies very proud on the pool.

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Another silver for the Dolphins Swim Team on Day 5 of the 2022 World Swimming Championships with three potential gold medal races to bounce back tomorrow

by Sports Benches

Another day, another silver medal for the Dolphins Swim Team after Day 5 of the 2022 World Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Let’s start with 18-year-old Mollie O’Callaghan who endured a fantastic day once again in the pool. Not only she was too good all along in the lead up to tomorrow night’s Women’s 100m breaststroke final, but she also brought home another silver for the Dolphins with Madi Wilson, Leah Neale & Kiah Melverton in the Women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay.

Although Neale has the most credit when she briefly led the field at one point going into Stage 3/4 – but Katie Ledecky came in at the same as Melverton where she was proved too good for Team USA that sets up Bella Sims to finish off comfortably in 1st. As Bobby Hurley said on commentary, O’Callaghan will need to build on the early momentum in order to stay ahead. It’s the one weakness she couldn’t nail down China’s Junxuan Yang just before the finish line yesterday in the Women’s 200m Freestyle Final.

Then we look at Jenna Strauch over in the Women’s 200m breaststroke as she never looked out of place – especially when she came 1st in the semis before she ended up being the overall fastest out of the Top 8 for tomorrow night’s final. So does Zac Stubblety-Cook who smashed it in the Men’s 200m breaststroke where he came first as well in both preliminaries that sets up another potential gold to take home.

And shoutout to two other swimmers who couldn’t quite finish at least in the Top 3 but did their best nonetheless; Kaylee McKeown P6 in the Women’s 50m backstroke, as well as 18-year-old Liz Dekkers P5 in the Women’s 200m butterfly on her first International final – with a personal best time of 2:07:81.

Keep an eye on O’Callaghan, Stubblety-Cook and Strauch in the finals tomorrow that would hopefully put the Dolphins back to 2nd with three days left – even though it’s nearly impossible to catch up to their arch-rivals – Team USA.

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2022 World Swimming Championships, Day 3: Lani Pallister secures the only bronze for Australia with Mollie O’Callaghan & Madi Wilson both in the Women’s 200m Free Final tomorrow

by Sports Benches

The Dolphins Swim Team collected just the one medal once again this time in the bronze but they’re now been overtaken by Italy in 3rd on the medal tally with two gold, two silver & one bronze after Day 3 of the 2022 World Swimming Championships.

We began the evening with Elijah Winnington’s attempt to take home another gold medal in the Men’s 200m Freestyle Final, having already won the Men’s 400m Freestyle Final from the opening day. He had a brilliant lead-up there beforehand with 1st in the heats followed by 3rd in the semis. Although he started well in 3rd but he began to falter & just couldn’t bridge that fire he desperately needed towards the finish line down in 8th.

Then we look at the long-distance 1500m Freestyle Final with two fantastic youngsters in this race – Moesha Johnson & Lani Pallister. Now Pallister would’ve loved to have a close eye on the world’s greatest in Team USA’s Katie Ledecky side-by-side where she was too good ahead of everyone, before Katie Grimes eventually caught her brilliant 1st-half run for 2nd that sent Pallister down in 3rd.

It’s still a good swim though for Pallister after she collected the bronze medal ahead of Moesha Johnson who finished 4th which is a fantastic performance by two of our Aussie swimmers. There will be more opportunities to come when racing against the best of the best – especially with the Duel in the Pool event between Dolphins v Team USA coming up this August in Sydney. That way, they will benefit more competition from their arch-rivals before hopefully upsurging them in the process & create history of their own.

And speaking more about our talented swimmers, we have Madison Wilson and Mollie O’Callaghan lined up in the Women’s 200m Freestyle tomorrow morning Australian time. They finished Top 2 in the heats & semis for a start with O’Callaghan in 1st followed Wilson in P2 on their own respective races. They better be aware of Britain’s Freya Anderson if either O’Callaghan or Wilson can bring home the gold, as well as another Top 2 finish if possible tomorrow for the Dolphins.

#ElijahWinnington #MoeshaJohnson #LaniPallister #MollieOCallaghan #MadisonWilson #FINABudapest2022 #Swimming #Australia

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2022 World Swimming Championships: Kaylee McKeown collects just the silver for Australia in the 200m IM on Day 2; all eyes now on Elijah Winnington towards another gold tomorrow in the Men’s 200m Freestyle

by Sports Benches

The Dolphins may have taken just the one silver after Day 2 of the 2022 World Swimming Championships but they’re still in 2nd in the medal tally right now with two gold and two silver, even though they’re a few medals behind Team USA – who picked up three more gold & four bronze today.

Yes, it was hard to watch when Kaylee McKeown pulled out out the 100m backstroke which is one of her best races that helped her secure both Olympic gold medals last year in Tokyo. She could’ve also taken the risk to try & take home two gold medals – the 100m backstroke & 200m individual medley – all on the one day for Australia that would’ve put them just ahead of Team USA in the number of golds accrued on this medal tally.

However, it’s not something she‘s prepared for at this stage as McKeown wants to test out a variety of different formats on the road to the Paris 2024 Olympics, and then look to win as many gold medals as she can.

Nonetheless, she swam really well in the Women’s 200m individual medley final where it was a more challenging race than just the usual backstroke, as McKeown finished 2nd at 2:08:57 behind Alex Walsh (2:07:13).

We also saw some of our Dolphins in action who just couldn’t keep up the rest of the field either in the heats and/or finals; Zac Stubblety-Cook (P7 in Men’s 100m breastroke Final); Issac Alan Cooper (P6 in the Men’s 100m backstroke Semi-Final 1); Mitch Larkin (P7 in Men’s 100m backstroke Semi-Final 2); Brianna Throssell (P6 in the Women’s 100m Butterfly Final); And Jenna Stauch fell just short of the Top 3 bubble in P4 during semi final 1 of the Women’s 100m breaststroke – despite a brilliant start from the heats earlier in the day at P2.

There’s always the bright side though when it comes to 22-year-old Elijah Winnington after his heroics from Day 1 of the Men’s 400m freestyle final; he’s on the hunt towards another gold for the Men’s 200m Freestyle Final tomorrow on Day 3, having finished 3rd in Semi-Final 1 just a few hours ago.

#FINABudapest2022 #DolphinsSwimTeam #Australia #KayleeMcKeown #ElijahWinnington #SwimmingAustralia #JennaStauch #Swimming #DunaArena #Budapest

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Swimming back on Nine with the FINA World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan this May alongside some UEFA Champions League soccer finals

by Sports Benches

I’ve just seen the 2022 Nine’s Wide World of Sports promo and it’s great to have swimming back on the network in a long time since 2008, although they did show a bit of that sport when they had the rights to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London a decade ago but this time it’s only the FINA World Swimming Championships that will be held in Fukuoka, Japan in mid-late May this year.

It’ll be interesting to see if they will go with the World Feed commentary or use their own voices but with Ray Warren, who was their last play-by-play voice for swimming during the 1990-2000s, also called the London Olympics there & now at age 78, I reckon Nine will only have a studio panel with world feed commentary for this event especially when Rabs prefers to call on-site & has a fear of flying as COVID is still impacting all of us for two years.

And thanks to their own paid streaming partner Stan Sport, who covered exclusive UEFA Champions League content so far this season in the first of a three-year deal, nice to see the soccer back on Nine/9Gem in simulcast with Stan ahead of this competition’s finals stage as the last time European Football aired on Free TV was back in 2017-18 with SBS.

Exciting times ahead this May for the typical sports fan fix in Australia on TV and streaming.

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