Australian relay teams win gold on day one of world swimming championships

The Australian swimming team has had an outstanding start to the World Aquatics Championships, winning two gold and a silver to open the competition.

Australia's men's and women's 4x100m freestyle relay teams both claimed gold, while Sam Short won silver in the men's 400 metre freestyle.

The all-conquering women's 4x100m freestyle relay team won gold, ahead of the US in second and the Netherlands in third, to extend a major championship winning run that began with a world record set at the 2018 Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast.

The Australian men's team followed up just minutes later with a stunning come-from-behind win anchored by veteran Kyle Chalmers to set a championship record of 3:08.07, ahead of Italy, with the US favourites in third.

Chalmers dived in with Australia in third place after earlier legs by Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Maximilliam Giuliani, but stormed home in 46.53 seconds to secure the victory.

"It's so good to be part of a relay team that's so young and hungry and eager to have success in LA like I am," Chalmers said.

"We've won bronze, bronze, silver. I really desperately want to win a gold medal in a few years' time."

Southam said the goal for himself, Taylor and Giuliani "was just to give Kyle a punter's hope".

"And we all did our job extraordinarily well, but we came together and represented the country, so there's no greater honour, I think, and to do it in a relay is so much more special than an individual event," Southam said.

Giuliani said the result, on the first day of the swimming competition in Singapore, was "unbelievable".

"We spoke about it the first day we came together on staging … and to deliver on that in great fashion — I mean championship record [and] we weren't too far off the world record," he said.

"I think we've got a whole lot of potential in this team."

'A strong set-up for LA and Brisbane'

The women's race was equally dramatic.

Mollie O'Callaghan led out and established a lead by the first change, which was extended in the following two legs swum by Meg Harris and Milla Jansen.

In the final leg, Olivia Wunsch was chased down by Olympic relay gold medallist Torri Huske, who turned at the 350m mark in first place.

But Wunsch turned on the afterburners to reclaim first place, touching the wall in 3:30.6 seconds.

"I just wanted to power home and give it all I had and it's really exciting to be able to stand up with a gold medal today," Wunsch said.

"I love racing and I love anchoring a relay, so that was really exciting."

O'Callaghan said the team was "very nervous leading up to this".

"I thought I've just got to try my best for these three girls and especially the girls in the heat," she said.

"It's nice to know that we have a strong set-up for LA and Brisbane and, yeah, I'm very confident in these girls and it's going to be a great week."

The US team had been rocked by a case of gastroenteritis that has gone through the team after a staging camp in Thailand.

Just minutes before the final, multiple Olympic relay gold medallist Gretchen Walsh pulled out of the team.

But Huske said the team was not making excuses.

"I don't want to speak to how much it's affected us necessarily," she said.

"We've done a really good job in staying resilient."

'Happy to be back'

Earlier in the night, Short fell agonisingly short of a gold medal, losing by just 0.02 seconds to German world record holder Lukas Martens.

Short's time of 3:42.37 was 0.3 seconds slower than the time he swam in the morning's heats.

But rather than express disappointment, Short said he was pleased to be back on a world championship podium after previously taking gold at the 2023 championships in Fukuoka.

"So happy to be back on the podium," he said.

"It was a pleasure to race the Olympic champion, world record holder and now world champion, so I knew he was going to be a tough opponent.

"I'm really proud of how hard I pushed myself and you know, .02, it's not the end of the world, silver medal, I get to get back on the podium and [there's a] long meet to come."

He said the result was some consolation after a disappointing campaign at the Paris Olympic Games, where he had a chance to win the gold medal in the 400m freestyle but narrowly missed bronze in the final.

He then missed the finals of the 800m and 1,500m and dubbed his Olympic Games "a failure".

As to why his evening swim was slower than his morning time, which would have won gold, he said in hindsight he could have gone slower in his heat swim.

"I felt comfortable this morning. I actually felt I could have gone 3:40 this morning," he said.

"So, you know, just a high-pressure environment, backing that up, small turnaround and also a great field as well.

"When I was with him with 100 to go, I knew it was going to be a dogfight — he's a pretty good level. he's the world record holder.

"I knew I wasn't going to be pulling away and I was hurting as well.

"I've got a good finish on me, and it wasn't quite good enough today."

Short still has swims in the 800m and 1,500m freestyle events and the men's 4x200m freestyle relay.

'You can't really ask for more'

In the women's 400m freestyle final, Lani Pallister was in second until the 250m mark, but faded to finish fourth behind world record holder Summer McIntosh.

China's Bingjie Li was second, with US veteran Katie Ledecky in third.

McIntosh's campaign to claim five individual gold medals at a world championships is on track and while her time of 3:56.26 is more than two seconds slower than the world record she set earlier this year, it was still two seconds faster than Li.

Pallister's time of 3:58.87 was a personal best.

"I think fourth is a bit shit, but if it's fourth and a PB you can't really ask for more," Pallister said.

Pallister said a young girl from Singapore had given her a pin with a picture of her when she was five.

She said she was looking at the pin as she made her way into the pool on Sunday night.

"That little girl would think that I was like the coolest person in the world, to be standing in that final, let alone being fourth," she said.

Another Australian, Pallister's lifelong friend Jamie Perkins, was sixth in a personal best time of 4:03.2.

Perkins said she was "pretty disappointed" despite the personal best time but said she was learning.

"I'm still young, so see what we get moving forward," Perkins said.