Budapest 2022, Oceania Day 1: Aussie Men Stepping Up When Unexpected

2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• June 18-25, 2022 (pool swimming)
• Budapest, Hungary
• Duna Arena
• LCM (50-meter format)
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Oceania finishes off day one of the 2022 World Championships with two golds and one silver, largely due to Australian men performing better than we expected them to.

Yes, the Aussie quartet of Mollie O’Callaghan, Meg Harris, Madi Wilson, and Shayna Jack dominated the women’s 4×100 free relay in a time of 3:30.95, winning the race by over a second. They did this in spit of their best sprinters, Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell, being absent, but they were still heavily favored to win this relay before the meet started. But you know which squad wasn’t favored to take silver the men’x 4×100 free relay? The Australian men.

After it took a time of 49.11 to make the worlds team in the men’x 4×100 free, people were worried that the Aussies wouldn’t be fast enough to medal in this relay, even after the news broke out that Kyle Chalmers would be going to worlds after originally saying he wouldn’t come. However, the Aussies ended up finishing in second, beating out silver medal favorites Italy. And while this was largely due to Kyle Chalmers anchoring in 46.60 and bringing his team from fifth to second, other swimmers on this squad had breakout swims as well. William Yang, the 100 free winner from Australian trials, swam a best time of 48.41 leading off. Yang is dropping time like crazy this year, having lowered his PB from 49.21 to 48.55 at trials. Jack Cartwright‘s time of 47.62 was also much better than what people expected of him, considering that his season-best time from trials is 49.04. Matt Temple had a similar drop, splitting 48.17 today compared to going 49.11 at trials.

But the relay wasn’t the only instance where the Australian men outperformed expectations. Elijah Winnington‘s men’s 400 free victory was another major highlight for Oceania today.

Last year, Winnington clocked a time of 3:42.65 at Olympic Trials, and was heavily favored to win gold in Tokyo. However, he added nearly three seconds to finish in a disappointing seventh place at the Olympics, swimming a 3:45.20. What stung even more was that Ahmed Hafnaoui‘s gold-medal winning time of 3:43.36 wasn’t as fast as Winnington’s trials mark, meaning that the Aussie knew how to swim well, but just didn’t do so at the right time.

This year, Winnington won the 400 free at trials in a time of 3:43.10, the second-fastest in the world at the team. It was a bit of a bounce back swim for him, but people were expecting him to win the event at Worlds. Why? Because all eyes were on Lukas Märtens, the man who went 3:41.60 in mid-April, the fastest time since 2017.

Märtens was the favorite this time around, but things got interesting when the actual race began at Worlds. Winnington started off with an early lead, before Märtens took over in the middle of the race. However, Winnington overtook him on the last 50, clocking a blistering 26.50 split to claim victory. And not only did Winnington beat Märtens, but he also beat out Märtens’ time from April, clocking his own time of 3:41.22 to become the fifth-fastest performer in history.

“I was probably in this shape, if not better, last year so it’s really just the mental game now,” Winnington said of the swim. “Everybody at this international stage, they put in work, they’re all talented so it’s who’s tougher in the mind.”

Read more about Winnington’s swim here.

Winnington’s win raises another question regarding his coach, Dean Boxall: As the coach both of Ariarne Titmus, the world record holder in the women’s 400 free, and Winnington, now the men’s 400 free world champion, does this make Boxall the best mid-distance coach in the world? Now that’s something for another day.

Other Notable Day One Stories:

• Brianna Throssell went a best time of 56.96 in the semifinals in the women’s 100 fly, and is the fourth seed headed into finals. She improves from her best time of 57.02 from 2019. With the loss of Emma McKeon, many were worried that the Australian medley relay would be weakened by their lack of a good flyer. However, if Throssell is able to drop more time, this relay could be much faster than we projected it to be.
• Zac Stubblety-Cook, who failed to break a minute individually at the Olympics last year, snuck into the men’s 100 breast finals in a new best time of 59.51. This bodes extremely well for Australia’s men’s and mixed medley relays, where he will likely be used on breaststroke legs. It is also a sign that we could see something big in his 200 breast later this meet, an event where he recently broke the record in at trials.
• Australia’s Lani Pallister and Kiah Melverton, as well as New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather finished fourth, seventh, and sixth respectively in the women’s 400 free. Pallister, already the second-fastest woman in Australian history for this event, set a new best time of 4:02.16- 0.04 seconds better than what she went at trials.
• Kaylee McKeown qualifies for the 200 IM finals as the third seed behind Americans Alex Walsh and Leah Hayes. She clocked a time of 2:10.17, but she needs to be near her best time of 2:08.19 in order to challenge Walsh, who looks more and more like she’s about to run away with the 200 IM world title. 17-year-old Ella Ramsay qualified for the semi-finals, but missed out on finals by finishing 15th in 2:13.10.
• New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt and Australia’s Brendon Smith finished fourth and fifth in the men’s 400 IM with times of 4:10.98 and 4:11.36 respectivley. Smith failed to defend his Tokyo bronze, but given that all three 400 IM medalists were at least two seconds faster than what it took to win gold last year, he wouldn’t have medaled even if he neared his best time of 4:09.27. Clareburt’s time and finish was impressive considering that he had a bout of COVID-19 before this meet.

Oceania Medal Table: