2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- Competition Schedule
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Entry Lists
- Start Lists
- Results
At the 2017 edition of the World Championships, the nation of Australia walked away with just 1 gold medal as a nation, with the medal coming courtesy of Emily Seebohm’s performance in the women’s 200m backstroke.
Flash forward to 2019 and Seebohm was left off the roster, not having earned qualification in any backstroke event, while Australia has already surpassed its 2017 medal total with 2 golds earned just on night 1.
The women’s 400m free is where the first gold medal was secured, with 18-year-old Ariarne Titmus wowing the world with her 400m freestyle victory over Amerian icon Katie Ledecky. Titmus’ time of 3:58.76 produced a new Australian, Oceanic and Commonwealth Record to have her nation’s World Championships start off on the right foot.
More damage was done to the medal table come the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, where the Aussie combination of Cate Campbell, Bronte Campbell, Emma McKeon, and Brianna Throssell topped the podium in a time of 3:30.21, a new Championships Record.
Splits for the Aussies included 52.85 for C2, 53.34 for Throssell, 52.57 for McKeon and a 51.45 stunner anchor from C1 to wrangle up the top split of the entire field. That obliterates the 3:32.01 the Aussie women put up for silver back in 2017, but C1 did not compete at those Championships.
The Aussie men got on the board as well, taking bronze in the 4x100m free relay in 3:11.22, a vast improvement from not landing on the podium in 2017.
DAY 1 MEDALS TABLE
| PLACE | NATION | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL | RANK BY TOTAL |
| 1 | Australia | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 (tie) |
| 2 | United States | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 (tie) |
| 3 | China | 1 | 1 | 2 (tie) | ||
| 4 | Russia | 1 | 1 | 2 (tie) | ||
| 5 (tie) | Canada | 1 | 1 | 2 (tie) | ||
| 5 (tie) | Italy | 1 | 1 | 2 (tie) | ||
| Totals | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 |
The men’s relay bronze was a nice surprise considering depth isn’t that good at the moment
It was a low bar…
So stoked for us Aussies! Hope this sets the tone for the next 7 days of competition 👊🇦🇺
Just so proud to see this medal table ! Please please please show Mike in Dallas
Emma McKeon is about to ruin some pick ems.
Not mine 😁
I just hope Aussies girls can pick up a medal tonight since that’s the only final tonight Australia qualified for from last night
It is better for Ledecky that Titmus beat her in the Worlds. Imagine Titmus beats her in the Olympics, it will be 1,000 times worse. This has prepared the world for a defeat of Ledecky and lifted the pressure off her. It should put a smile on Ledecky’s face than not. The most difficult part of an athlete’s life is to manage his career and Titmus has just given Ledecky the greatest help in managing her career. She may not know it now but when she is 40 and looks back to her career, she will realize that today is that best day she gets in her career. She cannot thank Titmus enough for helping her to manager her career.
1000 times worse?
It’s 1,000 times worse because the Worlds is a much smaller stage. The Olympics is a much bigger stage with the whole world watching. Defeat in the Worlds prepared the world to accept the defeat of Ledecky so that if she is to be defeated again in the Olympics, people will take it easily. That is good for Ledecky’s career because plunging from the top to the bottom is very bad for an athlete, it is much better to come down gradually. Titmus helped Ledecky’s career by helping her to come down gradually. Ledecky will realize today is the best day of her career when she gets older.
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It makes it better for the sport that Ledecky is challenged .. makes it a much more exciting race to watch when you see these two go head to head and challenging each other
That is true. How to manager the career of an athlete is also an art athletes should know. After all, the most important thing to an athlete is his career. He has to manage it well.
I wouldn’t call the 51.4 a stoner. How many times has she split faster?
50.93, 51.00, 51.19, 51.36…today is FIFTH fastest of her career. Beat next closest swimmer’s split by almost half a second….a stunner.
And what’s the fastest American relay split in comparison?? Just curious what you think
Oof turn for the better. This is good that team USA has a whole country who is challenging all at once now.