Elijah Winnington has demonstrated his mental strength to produce a beautifully timed swim and strike gold in the world short-course championships at the same Budapest venue where he first made his name as a Dolphins' powerhouse.
Two years since lifting the equivalent long-course title in the Hungarian capital, Winnington powered through over the last three lengths on Thursday to take another gold in the 400m freestyle.
It was Australia’s second title after Lani Pallister's gold in the 800m freestyle, and an emotional one for 24-year-old Queenslander Winnington, who'd taken silver at the Olympics in July.
Still more than half a second behind American Kieran Smith with 75m left, Winnington finally got on terms on the penultimate lap and from there was never going to be stopped as he clocked 3 minutes 35.89 seconds, 0.42sec clear of another American Carson Foster with Smith eventually third in 3:36.31.
Pointing to his head after his triumphant swim, Winnington reckoned he'd been pinpointing the mental strength he'd had to show.
“There are so many points where I was going to pull out of this meet," revealed the Gold Coast swimmer.
“When I decided to do it, I was breaking down with my fiancée and my parents because I was in a really bad spot. Just to think of coming to another competition was hard because the Olympics takes so much out of you and I was mentally drained.
"Then there was the added pressure that I'm an Olympic silver medallist and there would be more eyes on me.
“But this pool holds a special place in my heart. I won my first world title in this pool, and I'm glad to do it again.
"I kind of didn't see him (Smith) until about the 250-metre mark, and thought, 'uh-oh!'
"But I knew he would be fast - he's the reigning world champ in that event from Melbourne - and my strategy is always to come home strong and just fight 'til the end. I knew I'd have the biggest heart coming home."
Winnington's triumph was the highlight of the best day yet for the Dolphins, with Lizzy Dekkers having earlier taken bronze in a support act to another world record-breaking tour de force from Canadian Summer McIntosh in the 200m butterfly.
Olympic and world champion McIntosh,18, took the title in 1:59.32, beating American Regan Smith (2:01.00) while Dekkers clocked 2:02.91.
McIntosh eclipsed Spaniard Mireia Belmonte Garcia's 10-year-old record of 1:59.61, following up her 400m free landmark of 3:50.25 on Tuesday. She also set a new world junior 200m fly record 2:01.96 to win her morning heat.
Dekkers medalled again and Pallister won her fourth gong of the championships with a stirring anchor leg as the women's 4 x 200m relay quartet that also featured Leah Neale and Milla Jansen took bronze behind a world record-breaking US foursome.
Alex Walsh, Paige Madden, Katie Grimes and Claire Weinstein clocked the new mark of 7:30.13, with Hungary runners-up in 7:33.39 and the Aussie quartet just falling short of the silver in 7:33.60.
In the medal table, Australia are now third (two gold, two silver, three bronze), behind Canada (three gold, two silver, four bronze) and a rampant USA outfit, who have 18 medals in total (nine gold, six silver, three bronze).
Star of the US team has been Gretchen Walsh, who lowered her own 100m individual medley world record to 55.71 in the semis, the third individual record she'd set in three days.
