Kazan, Russia: Already with four medals between them at these swimming world championships — including three golds — Australia’s Campbell sisters are looking to get a couple more.
The question now is where to keep all that hardware in the room they’re sharing in Russia.
Cate Campbell posted the fastest time in the heats for the 50-metres freestyle Saturday, indicating that she’s ready to bounce back after losing her 100 title to younger sister Bronte a night earlier.
After morning prelims, the sisters were giggling over the whereabouts of Bronte’s gold.
“It’s stashed away somewhere,” Bronte said. “I’ll take it out and have a look at it in a few days.”
Perhaps Cate stole it?
“I’ll be looking under the bed later,” Bronte said.
Not so, said older sis.
“It’s on the dressing table next to her midnight snack,” said Cate, who got bronze in the 100. “I think she got up for a sneaky peak when she went for a midnight snack. ... [It’s] not under my bed.”
Cate’s 50 time of 24.40 seconds beat Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace of the Bahamas by just 0.03 seconds, while multi-event standout Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden was third in 24.53.
“It was very, very quick this morning,” Cate said. “There are a few girls who had swum the 100 who were feeling a little bit dusty but I would say the majority of the girls in the top 16 didn’t swim the 100 so they were nice and fresh. Everyone needed to be on top of their game in the morning.”
Olympic and defending champion Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands advanced fourth in 24.62, while Bronte was seventh in 24.74.
The Campbell sisters also swam the final two legs to lead Australia to gold in the 4x100 relay on the opening night of the eight-day meet.
“First we had Cate and now there are two,” Kromowidjojo said. “I’m really happy for Bronte. She swam really good yesterday. We’ll see what tomorrow will bring.”
The top 16 in the 50 free advanced to the semifinals later Saturday, with the final Sunday.
Bahrain’s Alzain Tareq, a 10-year-old who is the youngest ever competitor at worlds, finished more than 35 seconds behind.
“It was good. I beat my best time,” Alzain said, before recounting the memories she’ll take away from this meet. “That I met Missy (Franklin), Sarah (Sjostrom), Cate (Campbell), Bronte (Campbell). I met champion swimmers.”
There were also heats in three non-Olympic events contested on the penultimate day of the meet: defending champion Camille Lacourt of France led the 50 back in 24.56” world-record holder Ruta Meilutye of Lithuana topped the 50 breast in 29.74” and the United States team of Conor Dwyer, Ryan Lochte, Margo Greer, and Abbey Weitzeil led the newly introduced 4x100 free mixed gender relay in 3:24.51.
Australia, the world-record holder, didn’t enter the relay.
Later, U.S. teenager Katie Ledecky was aiming for her fifth gold of the meet in the 800 free final - one of six finals in the evening session.
