Kyle Chalmers smiles that he's not ready quite yet for a 'changing of the guard' moment in Australian swimming as he looks forward to his potential record-breaking 100m freestyle final against his young domestic pursuer.
Chalmers knows his proud record of never having been beaten by a fellow Aussie in international competition is on the line in Tuesday night's (Wednesday AEST) blue riband final with 21-year-old Flynn Southam arguably the favourite to grab his first major individual gold.
If 28-year-old Chalmers successfully defends his crown, he'll break Ian Thorpe's all-time Australian men's record of 10 golds and a silver, moving to 10 golds and two silvers.
But Fremantle-born, NSW-raised Southam is the coming man, having clocked a sizzling 47.09 seconds in the lead-off leg for the men's 4x100m relay triumph, which is half a second quicker than Chalmers has swum this year.
After enjoying comfortable qualification for the 50m butterfly semis on Tuesday morning at the Tollcross pool, 'Big Tuna' Chalmers conceded the 'changing of the guard' moment was an inevitability at some point in the near future.
But he added: "I'd like to think that maybe it's not just yet."
"It has to happen at some time, right?" he said. "I'm 28 years old, I've been at the top for the last 10 years, so at some point, it's inevitable that I'm going to be beaten.
"It's going to come down to hardly anything tonight. I know that it's about swimming the race rather than swimming for a time. So I feel I've got a lot of experience in that moment that I'm going to draw on.
"And if I am to be beaten, it's good to be beaten by someone I consider a good mate of mine who I speak to pretty well every single day.
"Even when we're not at the pool, we're constantly in contact with each other. So, yeah, I look forward to having a really good race with him tonight."
Chalmers is looking for a blistering finish to what's been a "marathon" week, saying "it's been special to be part of a brilliant team performance", as he qualified quickest for the butterfly dash semis, in 23.07 seconds.
Teammate Ben Armbruster was second-fastest on 23.13, with 50m free champion Cam McEvoy joint-sixth on 23.74.
The tireless Alex Perkins, who celebrated her fourth gold of the week with her 100m butterfly triumph on her 26th birthday on Monday, qualified for the semis of the 50m freestyle as third quickest behind her teammates, 100m free gold medallist Meg Harris and bronze winner Shayna Jack.
Butterfly specialist Perkins could make it five golds in as many days should she be drafted into the mixed 4x100m medley relay team later.
