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Australian Dolphins | 30 July 2022

Dolphins Open Games in Blistering Pace

The Australian Dolphins successfully christened a packed Sandwell Aquatics Centre in the first session of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, with every Australian swimmer progressing from this morning’s heats.

Gold Coast 2018 Gold Medallist Mack Horton (3:47.54) opened the Games for the Australians securing his position in tonight’s final of the Men’s 400m Free touching the wall as runner up in heat 2. Horton will be joined by Sam Short (3:48.46) and Elijah Winnington (3:48.32) who, fresh off his World Championships gold medal in Budapest, took out heat 3.

The heats of the Women’s 400m Individual Medley saw Kiah Melverton (4:41.44) and on Commonwealth Games Debutant Jenna Forrester (4:46.28) secure lanes 5 and L8 respectively in the gold medal race.

Ariarne Titmus (1:55.68), Mollie O’Callaghan (1:56.65) and Madi Wilson (1:56.93) put on a show of dominance each winning their respective heats en route to the top three positions in tonight’s final. The Australian trio will be chasing Titmus’ Commonwealth Record of 1:53.09 set in Adelaide last year.

Ellie Cole (1:04.87) will swim in her last race in the green and gold tonight, the Women’s 100m Freestyle S9 final, after progressing from this morning heats. In her third Games, Cole will be joined by Emily Beecroft (1:05.93) and Ashleigh McConnell (1:06.76).

Looking to punch their ticket to Saturday’s final of the Men’s 50m Butterfly, Kyle Chalmers (23.45), Matthew Temple (23.70) and Cody Simpson (23.85) are all through to this evening’s semi-finals. Chelsea Hodges (30.66), Jenna Strauch (30.77) and Abby Harkin (31.48) have secured their lanes in the semi-final of the Women’s 50m Breaststroke.

Moving to the semi-final of the Men’s 100m Backstoke, Bradley Woodward (54.54) is the top placed Australian from the heats ahead of Mitch Larkin (54.85) and (54.97) who will join him seeking a finals berth tonight.

In her quest to become the most successful Commonwealth Games athlete of all time, Emma McKeon (57.34), with the fastest time from the heats, will swim alongside Brianna Throssell (58.40) and Alex Perkins (58.55) in tonight’s semi-final of the Women’s 100m Butterfly.

Aussie duo Zac Stubblety-Cook (2:09.88) and Matthew Wilson (2:12.02) will swim in the final of the Men’s 200m Breaststroke with the fastest and fourth-fastest times respectively from this morning’s heats. Stubbley-Cook set the world record in the event at May’s Commonwealth Games Trials before claiming gold at last month’s World Championships.

The morning session saw history with the first ever mixed relay contested at the Commonwealth Games. The team of Flynn Southampton, Zac Incerti, Meg Harris and Madi Wilson (3:22.14) have secured Australia’s position in the final of the Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay with a lane 4 start.

The Australian Swim Team will be back in action in tonight’s final session broadcast live and exclusive to 7 and 7plus from 4:00am AEST. Following the Swimming Australia Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for the latest from Birmingham.