Australia’s swimmers riding waves of golden momentum

Swimmers Shayna Jack and Meg Harris are attempting on riding Australia’s golden waves of momentum at the Paris Olympics.

Jack and Harris both cruised through their 50m freestyle heats on Saturday morning at La Defense Arena.

Jack clocked 24.38 seconds to be fourth-quickest qualifier while Harris (24.50) was fifth-fastest through the heats.

Fellow Dolphins Kaylee McKeown and Cameron McEvoy triumphed on Friday night to boost Australia’s gold medal haul at the Paris pool to seven.

The nation’s swimmers have also collected five silvers and one bronze medal in the French capital.

“We’ve done such a great job,” Jack said.

“Last night was incredible for us and I know the girls and guys just want to bring it home for everybody… we were all jumping up and screaming in the Australian team hub and it just brings so much joy.”

Harris hailed the spirit within the swim team.

“We just lift off each other’s energy,” she said.

“I have been in the crowd a couple nights now and it’s just so exciting to see how we’ve all come together this meet.”

Australia’s men’s and women’s 4x100m medley relay teams progressed to the finals – the women topped qualifying times and the men were ranked sixth.

But in the men’s 1500m freestyle, Sam Short’s puzzling Olympics continued when he failed to make the final.

Short clocked 14 minutes 58.15 seconds – almost 21 seconds outside his personal best – to be ranked 13th.

Earlier at the Paris meet, Short was considered a gold-medal fancy in the 400m freestyle but finished fourth in the final.

The 20-year-old also failed to qualify for the 800m freestyle medal race.