Elijah Winnington: Australia won the 400m freestyle at CWG 2022

• The Australian swimming team opened.
• Commonwealth Games pool in Birmingham.
• With a handful of gold.

Elijah Winnington won gold in the men’s 400m freestyle final, the opening swimming competition of the Games.

Five of the seven swimming gold medals up for grabs on Friday night were won by Australians.

Three silver and three bronze medals are also included in the country’s pool collection.

In the evening’s last competition, the Australian team of Emma McKeon, Mollie O’Callaghan, Kyle Chalmers, and William Yang won gold in the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay.

McKeon now has nine gold medals in her career in the Commonwealth Games, one less than Ian Thorpe, Susie O’Neill, and Leisel Jones, who hold the Australian record.

McKeon stated, “I haven’t done the arithmetic. I’m not looking at medal totals.

The dominating Dolphins received further points from para-swimmer Timothy Hodges (men’s 100-meter backstroke S9), Zac Stubblety-Cook (men’s 200-meter breaststroke), and Ariarne Titmus (women’s 200-meter freestyle).

A month after overcoming COVID, Titmus and Winnington, who nearly quit the sport last year, won their finals in an Australian clean sweep of the medals.

Also View: Commonwealth Games 2022 Live Updates

Sam Short (men’s 400-meter freestyle), Mollie O’Callaghan (women’s 200-meter freestyle), and Emily Beecroft (women’s 100-meter freestyle S9) all won silver medals.

Bronze medalists included Madi Wilson (200m freestyle), Mack Horton (400m freestyle), and Kiah Melverton (women’s 400m individual medley).

Celebrity swimmer Cody Simpson, however, failed to advance to the final after finishing sixth in his semi-final of the 50m butterfly.

Titmus won a traditional shootout between the seasoned and up-and-coming stars of Australian swimming by by 0.12 seconds over her training partner Mollie O’Callaghan.

Regarding O’Callaghan, her 18-year-old teammate, Titmus remarked, “I knew coming in she would be there.”

She is young, fiery, and ravenous.

“She’s like me, and I still am like that, but it’s fun to have a little bit of a fight out there.”

And Winnington’s victory continues his inspiring tale of swimming comeback; after blowing at the 2016 Tokyo Olympics, where he entered as a hot favourite but finished seventh, he nearly gave up.

The Queenslander acknowledged having sadness and felt inadequate after Tokyo before turning to a psychotherapist and then a mindfulness trainer for assistance.

Winnington had a victorious return to international competition at the world championships in Budapest last month, capturing gold in his favourite event. This came after months of reflection during his time away from the pool.

The Commonwealth crown has now been added to his collection.

Winnington admitted, “Coming off the back of Tokyo, it was incredibly tough. I almost gave up.”

“I made the decision to keep going and position myself and my mindset to achieve what I have accomplished this year.”

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