Mollie O’Callaghan and Zac Stubblety-Cook strike gold for Australia at swim worlds

Mollie O’Callaghan and Zac Stubblety-Cook made it another golden day for Australia at the world swimming championships in Budapest with supreme displays of brinkmanship.

O’Callaghan overcame a touch of pre-race panic to take the 100m freestyle with an extraordinary late burst on Thursday before Stubblety-Cook appeared to toy with his 200m breaststroke opponents to storm through and add the world title to the Olympic gold he won in the event last year.

Their come-from-behind wins doubled Australia’s golden tally to four, while Jenna Strauch, in the women’s 200m breaststroke, and the men’s 4x200m freestyle quartet of Elijah Winnington, Zac Incerti, Sam Short and Mack Horton also added silvers.

The 18-year-old Queenslander O’Callaghan swept through in dramatic fashion in the final 10 metres to snatch her first individual global gold and fourth medal of the championships. She clocked 52.67 seconds to beat Swedish world record holder Sarah Sjostrom by 0.13 and American Torri Huske by 0.25.

Once again, the Brisbane teenager won it the hard way, turning sixth after the first 50m, 0.61 behind Sjostrom. But just as in Wednesday’s semi-final when she produced the fastest second-half of a 100m freestyle race ever recorded – 26.43sec – to roar from last to first, O’Callaghan again timed her race perfectly, clocking 26.71 for the final 50.

Even with 20m left, it looked as if she might just miss out before her jet-propelled finish saw her add to the women’s 4x100m freestyle gold she won on the opening day and her 200m free and 4x200m relay silvers.

“Shocking, it was bad, the worst-ever,” said O’Callaghan, reflecting on her familiar pre-race nerves. “I was panicking in warm-up, had a little bit of a cramp in my leg. I was just feeling