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Harris & O’Callaghan Lead The Battle For Tickets To Greatest 4×100 Free Show In Water

Olympic relay champion Meg Harris, World 100-200m champion Mollie O’Callaghan and their 52.5s led the 100m free charge of six swimmers making the Paris cut but the drama was in the deep end of results among those who didn’t make the cut on day five heats at Australian Trials in Brisbane.

Harris was out in 25.43 and home in 27.09, O’Callaghan there in 25.90, back in 26.67. The spectre of sprint balance is ever present in the 100m.

The final is about two solo berths and up to six relay places, the qualifiers not only up for a ticket to the Paris Olympics but one of the most solid golden shots at the Games.

Whoever makes it, hey will be part of the greatest women’s 4x100m free show of sprint strength in water in an event Australia has dominated since the sinking of shiny suits in January 1, 2010: the Dolphins have taken down the world record five times, Emma McKeon in the mix on all five occasions, the Campbell sisters Cate and Bronte on the same four occasions each.

Bronte Campbell clocked 52.95 this morning, McKeon, Olympic 50, 100 and 4x100m free champion and queen of the Tokyo2020ne pool with a record seven medals in all, on 53.61.

Here’s the line-up for the showdown:

25.43 52.52 (27.09) Harris
25.90 52.57 (26.67) O’Callaghan
25.33 52.65 (27.32) Shayna Jack*
25.42 52.95 (27.53) B Campbell
25.82 53.30 (27.48) Olivia Wunsch
25.57 53.61 (28.04) McKeon
26.06 53.78 (27.72) Brianna Throssell
26.16 54.26 (28.10) Milla Jansen

Cate Campbell missed that cut by 0.01sec, having turned in the third fastest split of the morning (25.37, 28.90 – 54.27) before feeling the weight of being under the weather with an unspecified illness revealed by Swimming Australia.

Bronte Campbell, inside 53 in heats nine years after being crowned double sprint freestyle world champion, paid tribute to her elder sibling, after Cate left the 100m stage of the most powerful national female sprint freestyle force the swim world has ever seen – and that possibly for the last time.

Cate still has the 50m to go on the last day in her pursuit of becoming the first Australian swimmer ever to make five Olympics. Her fourth was a towering tribute to perseverance, commitment, endurance and inspirational contribution to the Australian sprint phenomenon.

That’s in the pool. Out of it, she has used her athlete voice to call for FINA reform, inclusion models that honour fair play rules for women and the need for governors and guardians to step up on delivering an “athletes-first” culture.

Cate Campbell was not the only big name the wrong side of the line this morning. Bullseye hit on three big Paris targets apiece, Ariarne Titmus, 200m world record, 400m world-record rattler and 800m Australian-record rattler in the bag, and Kaylee McKeown, World-record record-rattling 100 and 200m back finals and a Commonwealth mark 200IM in the vault, are no longer in line for 4×100 free duty. Titmus was 10th in 54.37, McKeown 13th in 54.75.

Brisbane Results in full / Event Page

In other heats…

Stubblety-Cook One Race Shy Of Signing In To Defence Of Olympic Crown

Olympic champion Zac Stubblety-Cook claimed lane 4 for the 200m breaststroke final in 2:08.40, inside the Paris cut through a smooth flow of 29.78, 1:02.65 (32.87) 1:35.67 (33.02) and 32.73. Closest to him was Josh Yong, on 2:10.66. The cut: 2:09.50

In the 200m backstroke, Brad Woodward raced inside the Paris cut of 1:57.28, in 1:56.91, while Jenna Strauch and Ella Ramsay are set for another duel in the 200m breaststroke, after respective heat times of 2:24.83 and 2:25.21.

With Sam Short out of the 1500m due to the effects of pre-Trials illness, Matty Galea will lead the chase this evening, the cut set at 14:54.29.