{"id":104681,"date":"2021-07-24T14:23:27","date_gmt":"2021-07-24T14:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=104681"},"modified":"2021-07-24T14:57:31","modified_gmt":"2021-07-24T14:57:31","slug":"surprise-star-poised-to-ignite-aussie-medal-rush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=104681","title":{"rendered":"Surprise star poised to ignite Aussie medal rush"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surprise packet Brendon Smith has emerged as a huge chance to secure Australia's first medal at the Tokyo Olympics after smashing his own national record to qualify fastest for Sunday's 400m individual medley final.<\/p>\n

Smith, the little-known Victorian, swam a sizzling 4.09.27s to set the pace ahead of New Zealand's Lewis Clareburt (4:09.49s) and USA's Chase Kalisz 4:09.65s.<\/p>\n

The final is scheduled for 11.30am AEST.<\/p>\n

OLYMPICS BLOG: DAY 1 NEWS, RESULTS<\/strong><\/em><\/a> |<\/strong><\/em> GALLERY: TOKYO OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I want to go faster every time I swim, so really happy with that and to be first ranked going into the final is really surreal," Smith said.<\/p>\n

"It felt fast, but to go 4:09.2 is probably faster than I thought it was."<\/p>\n

Asked if he could go faster, the 21-year-old replied: "We'll see."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Smith's heat featured gold medal favourite and local hero Daiya Seto, who sensationally bombed out of the final by 0.32s.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, the three-time world champion later claimed he was cruising but got his calculations wrong.<\/p>\n

"Even in the last hundred, I didn't let it all out," Seto said through a translator.<\/p>\n

\"Meet<\/p>\n

"Even when the other swimmers were coming near me… five years ago, I went too fast in the prelims and couldn't go fast enough in the finals. I tried to avoid that."<\/p>\n

Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe described the curveball as a "huge boilover."<\/p>\n

Smith's final on Sunday will be followed up by the men's 400m freestyle final (11.52am AEST), featuring Australians Elijah Winnington and Jack McLoughlin.<\/p>\n

\"Winnington<\/p>\n

The pair finished in a dead heat in 3:45.20s, which placed them equal fourth fastest.<\/p>\n

Henning Muhlleitner of Germany qualified fastest in 3:43.67s.<\/p>\n

McLoughlin admitted the heat swim didn't quite go to plan.<\/p>\n

"I thought 3:44 would be where we'd need to be."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But everything went to script for Australia's crack women's 4×100 freestyle relay team.<\/p>\n

Despite missing their two fastest sprinters – Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell – the team of Mollie O'Callaghan, Meg Harris, Madison Wilson and Bronte Campbell – set the fastest time with 3:31.73s.<\/p>\n

The USA team of Olivia Smoliga, Catie DeLoof, Allison Schmitt and Natalie Hinds advanced in fifth.<\/p>\n

The final is scheduled for 12.45pm AEST on Sunday, with the Aussies the hottest of favourites.<\/p>\n

– With AP<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surprise packet Brendon Smith has emerged as a huge chance to secure Australia's first medal at the Tokyo Olympics after smashing his own national record […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104681"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104681"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104683,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104681\/revisions\/104683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}