Chalmers won his heat in 47.77sec while arch-rival Caeleb Dressel of the USA was marginally faster in 47.73sec in the following heat. But Dressel surprisingly wasn't the fastest of all, with Italian Thomas Ceccon stunning the field – and Dressel in particular – by unleashing his first sub-48sec swim to lead the field into the semi-final phase with 47.71s.

The contenders came from everywhere, as one might expect in the most hotly contested event on the Olympic swimming program. Sadly, Cameron McEvoy was below his best and faded in the Dressel/Ceccon heat to seventh in 48.82sec. He missed the semi-finals cut-off by nearly half a second.

Elsewhere, the pace was electric. The newly crowned 100m backstroke champion Kliment Kolesnikov set the early benchmark with a 47.89sec but the heats just got progressively faster.

By way of reference, Chalmers won the Olympic gold medal in Rio five years ago as an 18-year-old in 47.58sec. Still, as he has demonstrated on many occasions, it’s not the time that drives the South Australian. It’s the thrill of the contest. He unleashed a 46.64sec anchor leg on Day three to deliver the bronze to Australia in the 4x100m freestyle relay, making up more ground than any swimmer has a right to. It is almost as though he contrives tricky situations and then finds a way out of them.

In that vein, he found himself in fourth place at the turn tonight, not nearly as precarious as in Rio where he was darn near at the tail of the field at the 50m mark of the Olympic final, but still a testing enough situation. He made light of it, powering home over the top of Russian Andrei Minakov and Canadian Yuri Kisil to hit the wall with seemingly plenty to spare. Dressel still awaits.

Ian Thorpe believes that the American is the best swimmer in the world in the post-Michael Phelps era but he has not shown that fully yet at this meet. He did what he needed to do in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay and he is pacing himself because of his heavy program, but when the time comes for him to show his electric speed, history says he will.

The question now is whether Chalmers will contest the final of the 4x200m freestyle relay in which Australia, swimming without him, qualified second behind a powerful Great Britain team. The race comes at the end of Wednesday’s session of finals, well after the individual 100m freestyle semis but Chalmers knows no other way of swimming than giving his all. But could doing so in the relay cost him in the individual final on Thursday?

Complicating the situation was the disappointing swim of Australia’s other individual swimming gold medallist in Rio, Mack Horton. He made the Olympic team for Tokyo only as a relay alternate but his debut swim at these Games did not go well for him.

After taking over from Alexander Graham, who had taken Australia to an early lead with a lead-off leg of 1.44.72, he struggled throughout his leg, finally handing over to Elijah Winnington in fourth place. It was primarily as a result of an impressive 1.45.58 anchor leg by Zac Inserti that Australia came through as second fastest behind the British quartet of Matt Richards, James Guy, Calum Jarvis and newly-crowned 200m freestyle Olympic champion,Tom Dean. And, of course, they also have the silver medallist Duncan Scott poised to join their squad.

Certainly, Horton is expecting the worst. “It (my swim) was not as good as I was hoping for,” he said. “It won’t be good enough to get me through to the final but the important thing is that we qualified the team.”

More Aussies progress through heats

Zac Stubblety-Cook gave his many supporters the nervous jitters early in his 200m breaststroke heat, when he disappeared to the back of the field down the first 100m, as Holland’s Arno Kamminga toyed with world record pace.

But eventually the 22-year-old Queenslander settled into his stroke and powered home in 2.07.37, dead-heating with the Dutchman as the two of them led the field into the semi-final stage.

“My first 100 was a bit touch-and-go,” he said with considerable understatement. But that’s Round 1 done and dusted.

Matt Wilson, who missed the qualifying mark for a second successive Games before the selectors cut him some slack has repaid their faith by making it through to the next round in 10th position with a 2.09.29. Australia will be willing Wilson on to force his way into the Olympic final.

Jack McLoughlin, who had the Olympic 400m freestyle gold snatched away from him by Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui on the opening night of finals, did not extend himself in the heat of the new (Olympic) 800m freestyle event, qualifying sixth fastest in 7.46.94 . Ukranian Mykhailo Romanchuk led the way with a 7.41.28. He came into this meet with a 7.42.51 so clearly the pace will be lively in the final later in the week.

It didn’t matter what time Brianna Throssell did in the 200m butterfly heats, she was going through to the semis-finals regardless. Only 16 swimmers fronted for the heats and every one of them qualified. For the record, however, the 25-year-old West Australian swam a 2.09.34 and looks on target to qualify for the final, just as she did five years ago in Rio.

As we near the half-way mark of the swim schedule there is plenty still to be excited about from the Australian Swim Team.

Wayne Smith 

#HaveAGo at Swimming