After Australia’s impressive early success in the pool, the red-hot action continues on Tuesday night as nine Aussie athletes plus a relay team compete in the heats – including in the star-studded 100m freestyle events.
The men’s 100m freestyle heats delivered a strong swim from Kyle Chalmers, who qualified sixth fastest overall after winning his heat with a time of 48.07.
Mathew Thompson described it as a “super swim” in commentary, although Ian Thorpe said he believes Chalmers can still cut a second off that time once he really ramps up.
While Chalmers is through, a close call saw fellow Australian William Yang miss out after coming seventh in the heat with a time of 48.46, which was 17th overall.
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Only the 16 fastest swimmers qualify for the semifinals, so for the time being Yang is a reserve.
One of the surprise results to come out of the 100m freestyle heats was Pan Zhanle, the world champion and current record holder, barely making it after recording a time which was good enough for tied-13th.
Whether he was just conserving energy or genuinely flirted with elimination remains to be seen.
Matthew Temple was the first Australian into the pool and came seventh in his men’s 200m butterfly heat with a time of 1:57.39.
It saw him rank 23rd overall and wasn’t enough to see him progress through to the semifinals.
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Earlier, it was confirmed that Lani Pallister had to pull out of the 1500m freestyle heats after testing positive to Covid-19.
The decision has been made with the 4×200 relay event in mind, with the hope the Olympics debutant will be able to conserve her energy to compete in that race.
It is an unfortunate setback for Pallister in her Olympics debut given she was the fifth fastest qualifier coming into the Games and, as a result, was a medal chance in the 1500m freestyle.
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THE OTHER KEY HEAT TO WATCH TONIGHT
Elsewhere, Mollie O’Callaghan will compete in the women’s 100m freestyle alongside Shayna Jack, the pair having already teamed up for gold in the 4x100m women’s freestyle team.
After O’Callaghan claimed a second gold in Paris by beating Ariarne Titmus in Tuesday morning’s 200m freestyle final, ‘The Missile’ James Magnussen predicted she would add to her tally in the 100m.
Not only that – but Magnussen believes she’ll soon overtake Emma McKeon’s six gold medals and become Australia’s all-time greatest Olympian.
“I’ll call it now Matty, O’Callaghan will go on to be our greatest Olympian in history and I think that was the monkey she needed to get off her back to go on to be our most successful Olympian ever,” Magnussen said on the Matty & The Missile podcast.
“I predict she’ll now win the 100m freestyle individual, they’ll win the 4 x 200m freestyle (relay) and they’ll be right thereabouts to win the (medley relay), which would end up five gold medals at one Olympics for one swimmer.”
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THE FINALS
When it comes to the finals on Wednesday morning (AEST), there’s defending champion Kaylee McKeown and teen talent Iona Anderson in the women’s 100m backstroke final (4:57am) – which McKeown qualified second-fastest for.
McKeown though faces a serious challenge in the form of US world record-holder Regan Smith.
Elijah Winnington will be in the final of the men’s 800m freestyle (5:03am) after qualifying fourth-fastest, though Sam Short just missed out after qualifying ninth.
Then, at 5:59am, the third and last final of the day is the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, which Australia will attempt to qualify for in their heats on Tuesday night.
Swimming (Heats)
From 7pm
Men’s 200m Butterfly – Heats (Matt Temple)
Men’s 100m Freestyle – Heats (Kyle Chalmers, William Yang)
Women’s 1500m Freestyle – Heats (Lani Pallister, Moesha Johnson)
Women’s 100m Freestyle – Heats (Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack)
Men’s 200m Breaststroke – Heats (Zac Stubblety-Cook, Josh Yong)
Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay – Heats (Australia)
Swimming (Finals)
04:30 Men’s 100m Freestyle Semifinals (Kyle Chalmers, William Yang TBC)
04:41 Men’s 200m Butterfly Semifinals (Matt Temple TBC)
04:57 Women’s 100m Backstroke Final [Medal Event] (Kaylee McKeown, Iona Anderson)
05:03 Men’s 800m Freestyle Final [Medal Event] (Elijah Winnington)
05:25 Women’s 100m Freestyle Semifinals (Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack TBC)
05:46 Men’s 200m Breaststroke Semifinals (Zac Stubblety-Cook, Josh Yong TBC)
05:59 Men’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Final [Medal Event] (Australia TBC)
Source Agencies
