Aust women smash relay world record

Sheā€™s already Australiaā€™s most successful Olympian but Emma McKeon continues to push the boundaries, steering Australia to a relay world record at the world short course championships in Melbourne.

McKeon swam the first sub-50 second 100m freestyle split by a woman with a time of 49.96 seconds.

She will start favourite to take Cate Campbellā€™s 100m freestyle mark of 50.25 seconds later this week.

Entering the water with the team in third place and a second behind the leading Americans, 28-year-old McKeon overhauled the field to secure the gold.

It was the first time Australia had won the short course title.

ā€œI always put my best races together in a relay ā€“ I love the team event,ā€ said McKeon, who owns 11 Olympic medals.

ā€œItā€™s pretty cool (to go sub-50) ā€“ thereā€™s some incredible short course who have been racing years before me.

ā€œI think Cate (Campbell) has got our world record so thereā€™s high calibre there so itā€™s pretty cool to be doing 49 in a relay.

ā€œIt wasnā€™t something I was thinking about, it was just about touching first.ā€

The team clocked three minutes 25.43 seconds as the USA (3:26.29) and Canada (3:28.06) rounded out the podium with the first two teams both eclipsing the 2014 record of 3.26.53 set by the Dutch.

Teenager Mollie Oā€™Callaghan was backing up after setting the fastest time of the 100m backstroke semi-finals and was surprisingly off the pace in the opening leg.

Replacing heat swimmer Leah Neale, Oā€™Callaghan opened the relay with a time of 52.19 before Madi Wilson (51.28) and Meg Harris (52.00) made up ground before McKeon brought it home.

Oā€™Callaghan fronted the press but was ushered away after uncharacteristically swearing, but seemed to regain her composure after she sat and had some water.

ā€œI wanted to try my best and do what I could do to try and touch the wall and give the girls a good lead but at the end of the day itā€™s a team effort and we all did pretty f***ing amazing,ā€ the 18-year-old told reporters.

The Australian women collected a large paycheque as well as the gold medal with $37,000 paid for a world record from the prize money pool of $3 million.

The menā€™s 4x100m relay team finished with a silver medal, with winners Italy also setting a new world mark.

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Melissa Woods
(Australian Associated Press)

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