Australia Sets ‘Unexpected’ World Record At FINA Swimming Championships

Australia has set a new world record in the mixed 4x100 meters freestyle final at the 19th FINA World Championships on Saturday in Budapest.

Jack Cartwright, Kyle Chalmers, Madison Wilson, and Mollie O’Callaghan clocked 3 minutes, 19.38 seconds, slicing two-hundredths of a second off the world record set by the US in July 2019 during the world championships in South Korea.

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“It’s insane ... I think we were always going to be hard to beat,” Chalmers said.

But while Chalmers was positive of a win, Wilson seemed a little surprised.

“It’s pretty unexpected,” Wilson said.

“I don’t think there was any mention or any expectation or even a thought of being able to break that. To do that and see that at the end was unbelievable and a real surprise for us.”

- Madison Wilson

Earlier Australian Kaylee McKeown took out the women’s 200m backstroke.

In the final lap McKeown took the lead from American Phoebe Bacon to win at the touch by just 0.04sec.

“Everything turned out positively in the end,” said McKeown.

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