FLASH! Mollie O’Callaghan Blasts Another World Record in 200 Freestyle
The world record set by Mollie O’Callaghan at last week’s World Cup apparently wasn’t enough, as the Australian ace delivered another global standard on Friday night. Racing at the World Cup stop in Toronto, O’Callaghan bettered her own world mark in the 200-meter freestyle, thanks to a performance of 1:49.36. The effort punctuated a sweep of the event for O’Callaghan during the three-stop World Cup tour, granting her a $10,000 bonus.
In Westmont (Ill.) last weekend, O’Callaghan became the first woman to break the 1:50 barrier in the 200 freestyle when she clocked a time of 1:49.77. That time stood as the world record for less than a week, as O’Callaghan attacked her record from the start during action in Toronto. At the touch, the Aussie star sliced .41 off her previous record and is now nearly a second faster than the No. 2 performer of all-time, Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey (1:50.31).
O’Callaghan went through the opening 50 meters in 25.45 and turned at the midway point of the race in 53.25, which was .34 ahead of world-record pace. O’Callaghan touched at 150 meters in 1:21.47 and relied on her sterling closing speed to set the world record. O’Callaghan closed in 27.89, the only sub-28 split on the homecoming stretch.
“If you set your mind to it, you can achieve it,” O’Callaghan said of her record. “And if you put the hard work in it and have a great support team behind you, anything’s possible. I think I have to give it all to the people behind me, my physio, to my coach, (Dean Boxall), to everyone who’s done a little nitty gritty for me to perform on this day.”
