Lani Pallister makes swimming history in never-before-seen feat at world champs

Australia officially has a new golden girl of the pool. Lani Pallister has become the first female swimmer to win three individual freestyle gold medals at a short course world championships after claiming the 1500m title on Friday night.

After winning the 400 and 800m titles earlier in the meet, as well as being part of the 4x200m freestyle relay team, Pallister demolished the field in the 1500m. The Aussie star was untouchable on Friday night, lapping some of her rivals before finishing in 15 minutes 21.43 seconds - over 25 seconds clear of the rest of the field in a new Australian record.

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In touching scenes, Pallister was presented with her 1500m gold medal by her "spiritual godmother", Australian swimming legend Dawn Fraser. The pair then shared the dais together in a heartwarming moment.

The daughter of former Australian distance swimming great Janelle Elford, Pallister endured an awful run with injury and illness over the past 18 months. She underwent heart surgery as well as battling an eating disorder and glandular fever and contemplated walking away from swimming.

"I'm excited to go four from four - I couldn't have asked for much better. It's been an incredible experience," Pallister said. "After the last year, coming from such a low to world champs and Comm Games this year, doing this meet has been icing on the cake for me."

She admitted: "It was a little bit harder than I expected. The 800 was probably my best event this week. But I'm just really excited, I couldn't have asked for much better."

Isaac Cooper robbed of gold medal in controversial drama

It wasn't all good news for Australia on Friday night, with 18-year-old Isaac Cooper settling for silver after initially thinking he'd won the 50m backstroke. Cooper kept swimming after an alarm sounded after the start of the race, touching the wall first in a time of 22.49 seconds, which would have set a new junior world record.

But because half the field had stopped after hearing the alarm, the result didn't count. After some initial thoughts that one of the swimmers had false-started, officials revealed that the alarm went off due to a 'technical glitch'. After some deliberation it was decided that a re-swim would need to take place an hour later.

In Heartbreaking scenes, Cooper only finished second in the re-swim with a time of 22.73. The 18-year-old was left in tears after Ryan Murphy of America touched home ahead of him.

"Life keeps on throwing shit at me and I keep on pushing through," Cooper told reporters. "I've been trying my best - I've gone through so many low points and all I want to do is to be able to stand on top and every time I do I get knocked back again. If I can come back from this I know I will be a better person, a better athlete."

Australia also had to settle for silver in the mixed freestyle relay, with France bursting out of the blocks to smash the world record. Long course world champions in the 4x50m, Emma McKeon swam the final leg for Australia and powered home for silver after entering the pool out of a medal spot.

The Australian men's 4x200m freestyle relay team had the same outcome, finishing second behind the USA, who also smashed the world record. McKeon backed up from the relay to set the pace heading into Saturday's 50m freestyle final, while relay teammate Kyle Chalmers won his 50m semi but posted the fourth-fastest time overall.

Another world record fell in the women's 50m backstroke. Canada's Maggie MacNeil broke her own record by 0.02 seconds, with American Claire Curzan in second and Australian teen Mollie O'Callaghan picking up bronze.

with agencies

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