Article by Glen Quartermain courtesy of the West Australian.
WA Institute of Sport swimmer Josh Yong helped set a world record and propel his country to a gold medal in the 4x100m medley relay at the FINA Short Course World Swimming Championships on Sunday night.
The Aussie foursome of Matthew Temple, Yong, Isaac Cooper and Kyle Chalmers, pictured left to right, touched the wall at the same time as the United States team in 3min. 18.98sec.
The Aussies appeared destined for silver, until Chalmers reeled in the US over the final 25m with both teams declared gold medal winners.
They beat the Russian Federation’s old mark of 3:19.16 that had stood since 2009.
The stunning finish to the meet gave Australia a national record 13 golds, beating the 12 it claimed in 1995 and 2006, and second on the medal table behind the US with 17 golds.
Chalmers sacrificed his 200m freestyle heat on Sunday morning so he could concentrate on the medley relay and it paid off.
“These guys swam out of their skins…that makes my job very, very easy,” Chalmers said. “I just got the fun job of bringing it home.”
It was Chalmers’ third gold medal of the meet, following succes in the 100m free style and 4 x 50 freestyle relay. Kaylee McKeown’s victory in the 200m backstroke on Sunday night meant she is now the first woman to hold the Olympic, Commonwealth , world long and short course titles for the same event.
Grant Hackett achieved the feat in the 1500m. McKeown clocked 1:59.26 to fall just short of the 1:58.94 she set two years ago.
It was McKeown’s third gold medal of the championships after she took out the 100m backstroke and was a member of the winning 4x50m medley relay team. Olympic great Emma McKeon took out the 50m and 100m freestyle double.
