{"id":367742,"date":"2024-02-14T19:39:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T20:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=367742"},"modified":"2024-02-14T21:02:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T21:02:29","slug":"aussie-underdog-shatters-record-to-win-world-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=367742","title":{"rendered":"Aussie underdog shatters record to win world gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Williamson\ufeff bagged Australia's first swimming<\/a> gold medal of the World Aquatics Championships<\/a> on Thursday morning (AEDT) \u2014 and broke his own national record.<\/p>\n

The Melbourne product\ufeff blitzed the men's 50m breaststroke final in 26.32 seconds, a day after lowering his Australian record to 26.41 in the semi-finals in Doha.<\/p>\n

As Williamson rocketed to glory, Australia's Rhiannan Iffland plummeted to glory, capturing gold in the women's 20m high diving<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The 32-year-old from Lake Macquarie in NSW racked up 342 points to haul in her fourth World Championship gold medal.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It hasn't sunk in yet," Williamson said.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/p>\n

"Someone actually said it before, and I had to pause and ask them \u2026 'Am I really world champion? What does it mean?'. It's an incredible experience.<\/p>\n

"I just wish everyone back home was here to celebrate it.<\/p>\n

"Two years ago, I was sitting at home watching the swimming and just thought, 'You know what? That could be me one day'. So I just put my head down and worked my arse off to get here."<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 World Aquatics Championships\ufeff live and exclusively on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The 26-year-old is intent on making his Olympic debut in Paris, but will have to step up in distance; the only Olympic breaststroke distances are 100m and 200m.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Williamson is an Australian swimming underdog; \ufeffBrisbane's Zac Stubblety-Cook dominates the men's breaststroke plaudits Down Under, being an Olympic, World Championship and Commonwealth champion.<\/p>\n

"I have to do two laps and my next goal is to get back in the pool and train and give myself the best chance of Paris," Williamson said.<\/p>\n

\"Rhiannan<\/p>\n

Iffland\ufeff's victory followed her World Championship triumphs of 2017, 2019 and 2023.<\/p>\n

"Number four. I'm absolutely speechless," said Iffland, whose high diving brilliance has slipped under the radar because high diving isn't an Olympic sport.<\/p>\n

"It's a big accomplishment.<\/p>\n

"I knew it was gonna be a fight, so it makes it that bit more rewarding. I'm really proud that I fought for it and didn't give up."\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam Williamson\ufeff bagged Australia's first swimming gold medal of the World Aquatics Championships on Thursday morning (AEDT) \u2014 and broke his own national record. The […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":367744,"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\/367742"}],"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=367742"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367747,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367742\/revisions\/367747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/367744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=367742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=367742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=367742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}