Breaststroker Zac Stubblety-Cook is trying not to get swept away in waves of excitment at Australia’s achievements in the world championships.
But Stubblety-Cook says it’s difficult to find a balance between celebrating his nation’s six gold medals and three world records in Japan so far and focusing on his own performance.
The world record holder and Olympic champion in the 200 metres breaststroke was quickest through the heats of his pet event on Thursday in Fukuoka.
His heat swim came after winning a silver medal as part of Australia’s 4x100m mixed medley relay on a Wednesday night when Mollie O’Callaghan broke the oldest world record in women’s swimming in winning the 200m freestyle.
Ariarne Titmus (women’s 400m freestyle) and Australia’s women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team have also set fresh world benchmarks at the meet.
“You can get caught up in it and get a bit over-excited by it all,” Stubblety-Cook said.
“But you see people like Arnie (Titmus) step up and do what they do every day and Mollie as well and you definitely feed off that.
“You also have to put it in perspective and go back to that process and do the best outcome for yourself.”
Stubblety-Cook said the feats of training partners Titmus and O’Callaghan were testament to their coach Dean Boxall.
“That is a mastery of coaching,” he said.
“To have two world records in two different events at the same meet and then two swimmers gold and silvers in the (200m freestyle) event, swimming very differently, was very cool to watch.”
O’Callaghan, the morning after her stunning record, made a solid start to her title defence in the 100m freestyle.
The 19-year-old clocked 54.01 seconds and was the seventh-quickest qualifier for Thursday night’s semi-finals, with compatriot Emma McKeon (53.40) ranked third through the heats.
Australia’s Brad Woodward was fastest into the men’s 200m backstroke heats, logging one minute 57.14 seconds in his heat.
In the women’s 200m breaststroke heats, Abbey Harkin clocked 2:25.11 and was ranked sixth for the semi-finals.
Australia’s 4x200m freestyle relay team – Madi Wilson, Lani Pallister, Brianna Throssell and Kiah Melverton – qualified second-quickest behind the United States for the final.