Australia Set To Celebrate Golden Week Atop Medals Table As Last Day Dawns In Fukuoka
The Australia Dolphins go into the last day of finals in Fukuoka at the 20th World Championships with a flurry of podium shots but the golden work of a sensational week in the bag, Don Talbot doubtless looking down from his cloud with a smile on his face as history repeats, 2001 the last time the Green and Gold stole American thunder.
Here’s how the medals stack up going into the last finals session of the championships, the qualifiers in the women’s 400IM and the two medley relay finals, men and women settled this morning, Italy’s miss in the men’s medley relay the closest thing to an upset.
Note: the first column is the gold count, which leads and organises the rest of the table and shows Australia at the helm (its the points system that counts the strength of nations in the depth below podiums and in the work through the rounds aimed at getting folk in finals):
| 1 | AUS | 13 | 5 | 2 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | CHN | 5 | 2 | 6 | 13 |
| 3 | USA | 4 | 16 | 11 | 31 |
| 4 | FRA | 4 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | GBR | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
That count of 13 matches Australia’s best ever tally, from 2001 and 2005 but swimming is a sport in love with asterisks and trying to ignore them.
When this happened at Fukuoka 2001, Australia on top ….
| 1 | AUS | 13 | 3 | 3 | 19 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | USA | 9 | 9 | 8 | 26 |
| 3 | GER | 3 | 6 | 6 | 15 |
| 4 | NED | 3 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| 5 | UKR | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 6 | CHN | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 7 | ITA | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
… there were no mixed relays, so two fewer targets. It’s a small asterisk but it matters, Australia have picked up two medals in the mixed relays, gold and silver, which were not available to it when it claimed 13 golds in 2001, for example.
Mollie O’Callaghan, of Australia, will head home as the most decorated swimmers of the meet, her name carved on four of the seven World records set after seven days of action and titles in the 100 and 200m freestyle as the first ever to achieve that double, both freestyle relays and the mixed freestyle relay, the medley still to come, with the possibility of a record six world titles at one championship.
The World Records after 7 days, Australia accounting for all four women’s standards and the one mixed mark
Women:
200m freestyle: Mollie O’Callaghan Australia 1:52.85
400m freestyle: Ariarne Titmus Australia 3:55.38
4×100 freestyle: Mollie O’Callaghan (52.08) Shayna Jack (51.69) Meg Harris (52.29) Emma McKeon (51.90) Australia 3:27.96
4×200 freestyle: Mollie O’Callaghan (1:53.66) Shayna Jack (1:55.63) Brianna Throssell (1:55.80) Ariarne Titmus (1:52.41) Australia 7:37.50
Men:
400 medley: Léon Marchand France 4:02.50 (race video)
200 breaststroke: Qin Haiyang China 2:05.48
Mixed:
4×100 freestyle – Jack Cartwright (48.14) Kyle Chalmers (47.25) Shayna Jack (51.73) Mollie O’Callaghan (51.71) Australia 3:18.83
So, to the last day. The championships heading for a last sessions of finals stacked with he promise of thrillers at every turn and in three dash finals with no turn.
This morning’s qualifiers:
