In what is clearly an Olympics of new world records, the Australian women’s team of 4x100 metre relay has won gold with a world record time of 3:30.65.
Emma McKeon, Brittany Elmslie, Bronte Campbell and Cate Campbell orchestrated a win that saw American legend Katie Ledecky fall short as an anchor, and pushed the U.S.A to a second place finish at 3:31.89.
The previous world record in the 4x100 relay was set by the Australian team – also featuring the famous Campbell sisters – at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow. The new gold and world record has continued the Australians’ domination over the event in which America has not won since 2000.
The U.S’s Simone Manuel had led Australia’s Emma McKeon in the first 100 meters. Abbey Weitzeil then broadened the U.S. lead by completing the 200 meter with a time of 1:45.92 – ahead of Australia’s Brittany Elmslie’s 1:46.53.
However, the race changed immediately when Bronte Campbell took over and edged passed Dana Volmer with 0.42 seconds in hand. Campbell’s older sister, Cate, had her task cut out for her as she went head-to-head with Ledecky and came out of the waters a whole 1.24 seconds ahead of the U.S.
ABC News quoted Bronte Campbell as she registered her sister’s and her win and said this, “There is nothing better than this in our sport, this is it, and I can't believe we finally achieved it after all these years of dreaming of it. When I was a little girl, when I was seven years old, this is what I wanted and it feels very surreal to be standing up here right now.”
In third place, behind Australia and the U.S.A. were the women from Canada who completed the 4x100 meters at 3:32.89.
This is Australia’s second aquatic events win at Rio. Freestyle world champion Mack Horton had won the men’s 400-metre freestyle less than an hour earlier when the four women cruised through the relay.
