Face of Nation : Australia won in a national record of 7:00.85 and after his extraordinary medal ceremony protest against China’s Sun Yang, Horton happily took pride of place alongside teammates Clyde Lewis, Kyle Chalmers and Alex Graham as they received relay gold on Friday night.
Horton proved the difference in a see-sawing relay final as anchor, giving Australia victory ahead of Russia (7:01.81) and the United States (7:01.98).
It followed Australia’s win in a world record time in the women’s event 24 hours earlier and was also the first gold Australia had collected in the men’s race since 2003, when Ian Thorpe was a member of the triumphant quartet. Earlier, Campbell and Wilson picked up silver medals in their respective events.
Campbell clocked 52.43 to finish second to the United States’ defending champion Simone Manuel in the women’s 100m freestyle final, with the American swimming a personal best and national record of 52.04 to take the gold. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom (52.46) was third, while Campbell’s fellow Australian Emma McKeon (52.75) was fourth.
Wilson led the men’s 200m breaststroke final through the first three laps but he was overtaken in the last 50 metres by Russian Anton Chupkov, who set a world record of 2:06.12. The Australian swam 2:06.68, which was just .01 outside of the previous world record that he equalled in the semi-finals.
The men’s 4x200m freestyle win was Australia’s fifth gold of the swimming program and remarkably the fourth victory out of five relays to date at Gwangju. More importantly for Horton, it marked the first time the Australian stepped up to the podium after staging a protest against controversial Sun at the meet’s opening night.
Horton sparked an international furore when he refused to acknowledge Sun after the Chinese star relegated him to 400m freestyle silver on Sunday. Swimmers quickly threw their support behind Horton, who was angry that Sun had been allowed to compete ahead of a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing in September.
Sun, who served a doping ban in 2014, faces a lifetime suspension if found guilty of charges that he smashed a vial of his blood with a hammer in a clash with testers at his home last year. Coincidentally, Sun was swimming the anchor leg for a China team that finished sixth in the 4x200m relay final.
