Aussome foursome

GWANGJU (S Korea)

Australia set a world record of 7 minutes, 41.50 seconds en route to winning the gold medal in the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay at the World Championships today.

The quartet of Ariarne Titmus, Madison Wilson, Brianna Throssell and Emma McKeon knocked 0.58 seconds off the previous mark set by China at the Rome Worlds in 2009.

The United States (7:41.87) took silver and Canada (7:44.35) the bronze.

“Just touching the wall and seeing the three others celebrate, it made me so excited,” said McKeon, who swam the anchor leg. “I wasn’t thinking about a world record, that was the key.”

Titmus, who beat American great Katie Ledecky to gold in the 400 freestyle on Sunday, said she knew she would have to pull her weight if they were to have a shot at the record. “I really wanted to do my job for the girls, if we really wanted to have a crack at the world record I would have to play my part,” she added.

The Americans’ time was also under the previous world record and while Ledecky, who pulled out of the 200m and 1,500m freestyle due to illness this week, was disappointed not to win gold but she took some solace from the time. “It’s just cool whenever you break the world record,” she said. “We know we swam one of the fastest times ever so it was pretty cool.”

Dressel dynamite

American Caeleb Dressel broke the pain barrier as he swam the second-fastest 100m freestyle in history to retain his world title.

The 22-year-old, who swept to seven world titles two years ago, clocked a jaw-dropping 46.96 seconds to win swimming’s blue riband event, with Olympics champion Kyle Chalmers taking silver. “It hurt, it hurt really bad,” said Dressel. “You don’t get that magical feeling every night, you just got to shut the brain off and go,” added the tattooed pin-up.

“I wanted to try to zone out the best I could, just let that instinct to training take over and put my head down, sacrifice the body and get my hand on the wall.” — Reuters

Olympics champ King disqualified

Another day, another controversy at the championships, with American Lilly King’s disqualification from the women’s 200 metres breaststroke today proving the latest headache for governing body FINA. The championships have been marred by podium protests over the presence of China’s Sun Yang, who served a doping sanction in 2014 and was cleared to compete at the worlds despite another doping case pending at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Today, FINA came under fire for the controversial decision to disqualify Olympics 100m breaststroke champion King for a “non-simultaneous touch” at the first turn of her heat. The result of USA Swimming’s appeal was only made known minutes before the start of the evening session, prompting fresh criticism. In King’s absence her great rival Yuliya Efimova, who served a 16-month doping ban in 2013, posted the quickest time of the semifinals (2:21.20).