Short breaks Thorpe’s record as Australia sweep 400m freestyle golds at Pan Pacific championships
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Sam Short of Australia after competing in Heat 4 in the men’s 400m freestyle on Aug 14.
PHOTO: AFP
Australians completed a freestyle sweep at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships on Aug 15 after Sam Short clocked a career-best time to win the men’s 400m in a championship record time, while compatriot Lani Pallister claimed gold in the women’s race.
Short, who also won the 800m freestyle on the opening night of the meet on Aug 12, led from the start at the William Woollett Jr Aquatics Center in California and clocked 3min 40.52sec to finish ahead of China’s Zhang Zhanshuo (3:42.42) and American Aaron Shackell (3:43.44).
Short’s time eclipsed fellow Australian Ian Thorpe’s championship record of 3:41.83, set in Sydney in 1999, and also bettered the US Open record of 3:43.33 set by Rex Maurer in 2025.
“I thought I was going 3:39. I had so much left for the end, but (it’s a) personal best – can’t complain, and to beat Thorpe’s record... It’s about time it went,” said the 22-year-old.
“He was one of my heroes growing up. I’ve watched every single one of his races.”
The victory followed Short’s 400m freestyle title at July’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
In the women’s 400m freestyle, Pallister held off American Katie Ledecky to secure the gold medal after clocking 3:58.42.
Ledecky took the silver in 4:00.15, while New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather claimed the bronze in 4:02.35.
The 24-year-old Pallister, who won four gold medals and a silver at the Commonwealth Games, built a lead of more than two seconds by halfway and resisted a late charge from Ledecky to post a personal best.
“I did the first 50m and after having two really good 200s at the start of the week, I knew I had easy speed. And I think it got me on the back end,” Pallister said.
World record holder Summer McIntosh said it was a case of “lessons learnt” after she miscalculated her preliminary swim and ended up with the ninth-fastest time of the morning and missed the final.
“I promise I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said the 19-year-old, who won three individual gold medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The competition that brings together top swimmers from non-European countries has been a mixed bag for McIntosh.
She bounced back from her 200m free defeat to win the 400m individual medley but was disappointed to finish more than four seconds slower than her own world mark.
“This meet is definitely not going how I wanted it to go,” McIntosh said.
Elsewhere, American Gretchen Walsh won the women’s 100m butterfly in a championship-record 55.15sec. Canada’s Taylor Ruck took silver in 56.71, and Australia’s Alex Perkins claimed bronze in 56.75.
Australian Matthew Temple also set a championship record of 50.39 seconds to win the men’s 100m butterfly. REUTERS, AFP
