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Kyle Chalmers' 'absurd' act as Aussies make history at world championships

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·5-min read
Kyle Chalmers, pictured here after helpeing Australia break the world record in the 4x100m medley relay final.
Kyle Chalmers helped Australia break the world record in the 4x100m medley relay final. Image: Channel 9/Getty

Kyle Chalmers has stunned the swimming world in extraordinary scenes at the short course world championships, erasing a huge deficit to secure gold and a world record in the 4x100m men's medley relay. Chalmers started the freestyle leg with a deficit of 1.3 seconds and was still well behind at the last turn.

But the Aussie superstar motored to the wall in staggering scenes, touching in three minutes, 18.98 seconds for a dead-heat with the USA. The time was under the Russian Federation's time of 3:19.16 that had been the world record since 2009.

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Chalmers' split time of 44.63 seconds was the fastest in the history of the event. It also meant Australia finished with a national record 13 golds at the meet in Melbourne, bettering the 12 they claimed in the 1995 and 2006 editions.

Australia finished second on the medal table behind America (17 golds). Chalmers, who didn't swim his 200m freestyle heat on Sunday morning to concentrate on the medley relay, hailed Australia's gold medal haul as "incredible".

He also heaped praise on teammates Isaac Cooper, Joshua Yong and Matthew Temple. "You look at the splits ... well, I'm just the guy who carries that home, those three were the ones who carried us over the line and swum amazingly - they're probably the heroes of the movie we created tonight," Chalmers said.

Matthew Temple, Joshua Yong, Isaac Cooper and Kyle Chalmers, pictured here posing with their gold medals.
Matthew Temple, Joshua Yong, Isaac Cooper and Kyle Chalmers pose with their gold medals. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

The gold medal marked Chalmers' third of the championships, adding it to the 100m freestyle and 4x50m freestyle relay titles he won in Melbourne. Despite the deficit at the start of his leg, Chalmers said he was confident he could reel in American rival Kieran Smith.

"I'm confident every time I dive into the pool - I believe I can win," he said. "My journey in swimming is going to be until that is lost in me."

Swimming fans and commentators were left in absolute awe of Chalmers' 'absurd' swim.

Kaylee McKeown makes more swimming history

Meanwhile, fellow Aussie superstar Kaylee McKeown made history of her own on Sunday night after winning the 200m backstroke title. She is the first woman in history to simultaneously hold the Olympic, Commonwealth, world long course and world short course titles for the same event.

Compatriot Grant Hackett is the only other swimmer to achieve the same feat, doing so in the 1500m. "I had no idea and it's pretty surreal. To be up there with someone like him, it's phenomenal," she said.

McKeown was under her own world record pace for much of Sunday night's final. But she ended up clocking 1:59.26 seconds to fall just short of the 1:58.94 she set two years ago. American Claire Curzan pushed McKeown all the way and took the silver medal in 2:00.53.

It marked McKeown's third gold medal of the meet after she won the 100m backstroke and swam in the victorious 4x50m medley relay team. She finished her championships later on Sunday night with a silver medal in the 4x100m medley relay.

Kaylee McKeown, pictured here with her gold medal after the 200m backstroke final at the short course world swimming championships.
Kaylee McKeown celebrates with her gold medal after the 200m backstroke final at the short course world swimming championships. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

McKeown, Jenna Strauch, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris clocked 3:44.92. However the Americans led throughout the race to win in 3:44.35 and better their own world record time of 3:44.52.

Canadian Maggie MacNeil opened Sunday night's session with her second world record of the event, smashing the old mark in the 100m butterfly. MacNeil clocked 54.05 seconds to break the record by a staggering half a second. She has won all of Canada's three gold medals at the event in Melbourne.

American star Ryan Murphy rubbed further salt into Cooper's wounds from earlier in the meet when he completed his sweep of the men's backstroke events. Murphy won the 200m gold on Sunday night after also claiming the 50m and 100m titles.

Murphy won the 50m two nights ago on a controversial re-swim. Cooper touched the wall first in the initial race, but it didn't count because half the field stopped swimming when an alarm went off at the start of the race. Cooper had to settle for silver when the race was re-swum an hour later.

with AAP

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