Commonwealth Games: Emma McKeon Anchors Mixed Free Relay Triumph

Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Commonwealth Games: Emma McKeon Anchors Mixed Free Relay Triumph

Australia’s Emma McKeon brought home the mixed freestyle relay in a split of 52.21 seconds to lead the Aussies to victory on the first night of the Commonwealth Games.

The Australians clocked in at 3:21.18, winning by 1.27 seconds over England. They were sitting second after William Yang’s leadoff leg, but that was soon rectified. Kyle Chalmers, recovering after missing the final of the 50 fly earlier in the night, put them in the lead with a split of 47.55, outdueling England’s Tom Dean.

From there, no one was catching the back half of the Aussies, with the reigning World and Olympic champs in the 100 free. Mollie O’Callaghan, the six-medal wonder of the World Championships in Budapest this summer, went 52.62 to open a lead of seven tenths on England. McKeon brought the hammer on the end, .57 up on England and 1.3 seconds to the good on Canada’s Maggie MacNeil.

England took silver with the team of Lewis Burras, Dean, Anna Hopkin and Freya Anderson, who split 52.78 off the end. They went 3:22.45 as a team. (The British record, which includes Duncan Scott, swimming at this competition for Scotland, in place of Burras, is 3:22.07.)

Third was Canada’s squad of Javier Acevedo, Josh Liendo, Rebecca Smith and MacNeil, all of whom had an individual event earlier in the night. Liendo split 47.89. MacNeil was 53.51 on the end. They went 3:24.86, more than four seconds slower than at Worlds (Liendo, Acevedo, Kayla Sanchez, Penny Oleksiak).

Just outside the medals was Wales, thanks in large part to Matthew Richards going 47.52 in the middle.

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