McKeon, Schoenmaker Fire Warning Shots With Olympic Swim Records

Tokyo, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Jul, 2021 ) :Australia's Emma McKeon fired a warning shot Wednesday with a new Olympic record in the women's 100m freestyle heats, as storming South African Tatjana Schoenmaker clocked the second fastest 200m breaststroke time ever.

The door to the sprint gold is wide open, with American defending champion Simone Manuel stunningly failing to qualify at the US trials.

Manuel had dominated since Rio, winning back-to-back world titles, but missed crucial weeks in the lead-up to Tokyo after being diagnosed with overtraining syndrome, in which an athlete fails to recover adequately from training and competition.

McKeon, who won four medals at Rio, but not in the 100m sprint, came to Japan with the fastest time this year ahead of veteran team-mate Cate Campbell and bettered it with her 52.13 seconds.

"I'm pretty happy with that. An Olympic record is pretty cool," said McKeon.

"But I guess I had like yesterday off and this morning off, so I think it freshened me up a bit.

" Campbell qualified fourth overall in 52.80, but noticeably eased up in winning her heat as she seeks redemption in what is likely her fourth and final Olympics.

Campbell was the hot favourite in Rio after breaking the long standing world record in the build-up, but only finished sixth.

Both McKeon and Campbell already own a Tokyo gold medal after spearheading the Australian 4x100 relay team to the title and a new world record on Sunday, the only one so far in the Tokyo pool.

Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey, who sensationally won silver behind Ariarne Titmus in the 200m final earlier in the day, was second fastest.

Swedish sprint star Sarah Sjostrom, the current world record holder who broke her elbow in February, was fifth as she looks to rebound after placing seventh in the 100 butterfly.

"It felt great," she said when asked how her arm was. "I'm really happy with the progress I've been making. Let's see if it continues."