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'Chalming' night in the pool with one gold and two silvers

 

'Chalming' night in the pool with one gold and two silvers

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'Chalming' night in the pool with one gold and two silvers
Kyle Chalmers has won the 100m freestyle in his Olympic debut in a barnstorming finish and huge personal best.

SWIMMING: A sensational night for Australia in swimming finals at the Rio Olympic Games. A gold and two silver medals were added to the two gold and two bronze already won in the pool at Rio 2016. 

Teenage sensation Kyle Chalmers stormed home with a blistering final lap to win the gold medal in the men’s 100 metres freestyle at the Rio Olympic Games. 

The 18-year-old South Australian turned seventh in the field of eight at the halfway mark before producing one of the greatest barnstorming finishes to take the coveted gold. He is Australia's youngest swimming Olympic champion since Ian Thorpe in 2000. 

Chalmers knew he had a lot of work to do when he saw Canadian Santo Condorelli turn a body length in front of him.

“I knew I had done so much training that I could push myself over the last 15 metres. I love the sting. I didn’t have any more to give,” he said.

“I had the mental belief and the mental courage to control my first 50, and work that back end.”

Chalmers swam a huge personal best to break his own world junior record by winning in a time of 47.58 seconds, ahead of silver medallist Pieter Timmers of Belgium (47.80) and bronze medallist, America’s defending champion Nathan Adrian (47.85). 

World championship silver medallist Cameron McEvoy came in as the more favoured of the Aussies for an Olympic medal, however he could not reproduce his best form in the Olympic final. He turned in fourth and in touch but could not find teh rhythm to move through the fieled and drifted back to seventh in 48.12 seconds.  

McEvoy was gracious in defeat, saying he didn’t feel great in the warm-up or the race “but that’s sport”.

“It is baffling to me, especially with my analytical mind,” said the physics student. “Hopefully I can pinpoint what went wrong.”

McEvoy had nothing but praise for his room mate, saying: “He’s got everything going for him. He’s a great kid and a great personality.

Groves soars to new heights in fly final

Australia may have a new Madame butterfly with 21-year-old Madeline Groves soaring home in the 200m fly final to secure the silver medal in one of the toughest races on the program. 

The St Peters Western swimmer set a new personal best time of 2:04.88 and was just 0.03 of a second off the gold medal winning time of Mireia Belmonte from Spain (2:04.85).

The medal brings Australia’s Olympic total in this event into the double digits with one gold, now five silver and four bronze in our Olympic Games history while the time also sees her maintain second spot on the Australian all-time top ten rankings behind Jessicah Schipper’s 2:03.41.

Groves isn’t one to back-down from a challenge and after performing well in her heat and semi-final was ready to give it a red hot go today.

“I was so excited for tonight I was really happy with the way I dealt with the heat and the semi yesterday and I was just really looking forward to the challenge,” Groves said.

“Mireia (Belmonte) and I both swim our races very differently obviously. I like to go out very fast and she’s always going to be in the back end. She’s a really strong competitor and I was just absolutely looking forward to the challenge tonight. I’m so happy with how I went!”

After leading for the first 150 metres Groves was faced with one of the toughest laps of her life as eventual gold medallist Belmonte and bronze medallist Japan’s Natsumi Hoshi (2:05.20) came hot on her heels.

With the three going stroke for stroke to the wall Groves put her head down and gave it her all to get her hand on the wall in second place, narrowly missing the title but over the moon with her performance.

The courage to not give up in those final stages of the 200m butterfly is something Groves has bene working on with her coach Michael Bohl.

“It just means so much to me to even be here,” Groves said.

“I think four years ago I was in year 12 and I wasn’t swimming and I don’t know what I was doing! But I absolutely couldn’t have done this without my coach Michael Bohl. He’s been my biggest supporter for so long and he’s always been so encouraging and understanding of me.

He’s just been saying to me this whole week, just keep believing in yourself and have courage and I certainly think that’s what I did in the race tonight.

I have to have courage going out fast in the 200fly like that I’m really happy with the way it paid off,” Groves said.

Groves also drew inspiration from the original Madame butterfly, Susie O’Neill who wrote her a letter that she received while in a pre-Olympic staging camp in Auburn as well past butterfly legends and a current teammate.

“I’ve been very fortunate to hear Susie speak a few times now actually and she’s always really encouraging. You don’t have to work these things out for yourself you just listen to people that have already done it,” Groves said.

“I’ve always been a huge Susie fan, Petria Thomas, Jessicah Schipper, I’ve grown up absolutely loving them.

I think something that’s incredibly special to me is that eight years ago in Beijing I watched four Australian women win a gold medal and break a world record in the 4x200m freestyle relay, and that was one of the moment’s that just made me feel like wow, I want to go to an Olympics.

One of those women was Bronte Barratt and she’s racing the same event tonight and I think just to be here, I’m going to go and watch that race now, I just feel so incredibly humbled and privileged to be here tonight and to come away with the silver medal is just the best thing ever,” she added.

West Australian Brianna Throssell, who was swimming in her first Olympic final finished eighth overall in 2:07.87.

Silver lining as Barratt bids farewell

The last event of the evening saw Groves’ teammate and inspiration Bronte Barratt help to secure Australia’s second silver medal of the evening, in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Not only was it the last event of the evening but it was also the culmination of an incredible career for Barratt after 11 consecutive years on the Australian swim team.

Barratt who swam the third leg of the relay helped to keep Australia in the mix for a medal following two strong legs from lead off swimmer Leah Neale and Emma McKeon, with 17-year-old Tamsin Cook bringing them home to clock a time of 7:44.87.

The gold medal went to the USA (7:43.03) with Canada storming home to bag the bronze in 7:45.39.

Australia’s medal tally in the pool now sits at three gold, two silver and one bronze, with Emma McKeon taking her personal haul to three, one gold, one silver and one bronze.

Meanwhile in semi-final action:

Women’s 100m freestyle

Cate Campbell smashed the Olympic record for the second time on the same day as she set up a mouth-watering showdown with sister Bronte in the women’s 100m freestyle final. 

The 24-year-old Australian star broke the Olympic record in the heats earlier today with a time of 52.78 seconds, then promptly lowered her own mark to 52.71 seconds in winning the second semi-final in the Rio Olympic pool tonight. 

In the first semi-final, her 22-year-old sister Bronte turned first at the halfway mark then cruised home second to qualify for the final in a time of 53.29 seconds

 

Men’s 200m backstroke

Reigning world champion in this event Mitch Larkin will move through as the second fastest qualifier for the final of the 200m back.

After only just missing the medal and finishing fourth in the men’s 100m backstroke final earlier in the week, Larkin has another shot at a medal, after safely securing a place in tomorrow night’s final.

 

Larkin swam a time of 1:54.73, leading up to the 150m mark when Russia’s Evgeny Rylov (1:55.15) took the lead, pipping Larkin at the wall.

 

After the race, an eloquent Larkin said he was pleased with his performance.

 

“It was good, I watched the first semi and they swum well,” said Larkin.

 

“I knew that 55 would make it to the final and hopefully get an inside lane and I was able to do that tonight. What I learned from the 100, being a final, you do get that extra energy, that extra boost.  I’m looking forward to that. Tomorrow night I want to stick to my plan and execute it as best I can.”

 

Twenty-three-year-old Joshua Beaver finished tenth overall, just missing a final swim with a time of 1:56.57.

The men’s 200m final is at 10.26pm on Thursday August 11 (11.26am Friday August 12).

Women’s 200m breaststroke

Sunshine Coast swimmer Taylor McKeown has qualified fastest for the 200m breaststroke final tomorrow night. The Olympic debutant said any one of the finalists could win tomorrow night but she will stick to her race plan and leave nothing in the tank.

“It was just outside of my PB.  I backed off a little bit in the last 30m and stretched out my stroke and saved a little bit more,” McKeown said. 

“I’m really, really happy with that.  I certainly didn’t expect to be going through my first Olympics as the fastest seed for the final which is really exciting.  I’m really happy about that and I think it’s going to be a great race tomorrow. 

The swimming heats will commence at 2:00am AEST with finals from 11:00am AEST. 

Kathleen Rayment and Andrew Reid
olympics.com.au

 

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