World Championships, Day 1 Finals: Kyle Chalmers Anchors in 46.53 to Complete 400 Free Relay Sweep for Australia
Never count out Kyle Chalmers on a relay anchor. The 27-year-old has been the star of medal-winning teams on so many occasions for the Australian men, including an unexpected gold-medal effort two years ago in Fukuoka. Chalmers has used the same relay magic to pull off another upset title in Singapore.
Australia had qualified second in the 400 freestyle relay prelims but would be bringing back the entire lineup for the final, with no reinforcements waiting in reserve as was the case for other top contenders. It did not matter as each swimmer put forth their best swims in the critical moment. None were more impressive than Chalmers, who rocketed from third to first on his opening 50-meter split and ended up laying down a 46.53 anchor leg to bring his country to gold in championship-record time.
Australia came in at 3:08.97, six tenths clear of teams from Italy and the United States. Flynn Southam led off in 47.77 for the Aussies before Kai Taylor came through with a 47.04 second leg and Max Giuliani followed up with a 47.63. The final time of 3:08.97 tied for the third-fastest relay in history behind the American and French teams from the 2008 Olympic final and beat the championship record of 3:09.06 set by the U.S. six years earlier in Gwangju.
“We’ve come together really well (during) this staging camp preparation,” Chalmers said. “We believed we could do it and we did it.”
The Aussies are missing numerous veteran swimmers on this year’s team, but they still pulled off a sweep of the 400 free relays over their main rival, the United States. At the Worlds two years ago in Fukuoka, a day-one sweep of these events put the country in position to beat the Americans in the gold-medal count for the first time in 22 years, and such a scenario could be playing out again, particularly with numerous members of the U.S. team battling stomach illness and struggling to replicating their best times.
“Just seeing the girls come out and kill it, we were in the marshalling area together just going, ‘Just replicate what they do,’” Southam said. “And we’ve come together and we’ve done it.”
Also overachieving in this final was Italy, whose tam of Carlos D’Ambrosio, Thomas Ceccon, Lorenzo Zazzeri and Manuel Frigo clocked a time of 3:09.58 for silver. The Italians were swimming without consistent veteran Alessadro Miressi, but it did not matter as D’Ambrosio led off in 47.78 and Ceccon followed with the team’s quickest split at 47.10. Frigo then provided the necessary boost to get past the U.S. at the finish.
On the other side of the spectrum was the U.S. team with bronze. The Americans had entered as heavy favorites for gold, their composite times from U.S. Nationals suggesting a chance at the long-standing world record. Instead, the Americans found themselves overhauled in the closing stages.
Jack Alexy gave the team a half-second lead with his 47.24 leadoff split, and Patrick Sammon (47.03) and Chris Guliano (47.43) maintained the lead. However, anchor swimmer Jonny Kulow was unable to hold on as Chalmers and Frigo surged ahead. In his first major international final, Kulow split 47.94, slower than the 47.51 he went in prelims, as the Americans fell to bronze in 3:09.64.
The rest of the field was more than a second behind. Great Britain took fourth in 3:10.73, with Duncan Scott coming home in 47.23 to lift his country to the podium. Pan Zhanle finished in 46.63 for fifth-place China, and further back in the pack, Josh Liendo fired off a 47.08 split for Canada, although his country ended up eighth.
