Australia is eyeing up another golden day in the pool with six individuals and one relay team set to compete in the finals on Sunday morning.

That includes superstar Kaylee McKeown, who is looking to add to her 100m and 200m backstroke golds when she takes on the 200m individual medley final – alongside fellow Australian Ella Ramsay.

Lani Pallister, who was forced to withdraw form the women’s 1500m freestyle earlier in the Olympics due to Covid-19, is into the final of the women’s 800m freestyle alongside Ariarne Titmus – in what is another hotly-anticipated battle with American legend Katie Ledecky.

Ledecky owns the 16 fastest times in the event in history and is out for a fourth-straight gold medal in the event she first won as a 15-year-old in London 2012. Titmus qualified third and Pallister fourth.

In Saturday night’s heats, things got off to a perfect start in the women’s 50m freestyle heats, with Shayna Jack and Meg Harris qualifying fourth and fifth fastest respectively for Sunday morning’s semi-finals.

Jack won her heat in 24.38s with China’s Yufei Zhang second with 24.54 and Sweden’s Michelle Coleman third with 24.55. Then Harris finished second in her heat in 24.50s behind Poland’s Katarzyna Wasick (24.27s).

The pair put themselves firmly in the medal contention come finals.

Swedish superstar Sarah Sjoestroem dominated her heat in a stunning 23.85s, half a second ahead of USA’s Gretchen Walsh (24.37s) to lay down a marker to the rest of the field.

Jack has already won two relay gold medals but is desperate for a first individual medal to crown a remarkable comeback from a two-year doping ban in 2019.

Australia’s Sam Short had a disappointing race in his heat of the men’s 1500m freestyle.

Short, who finished third in last year’s world championships, couldn’t deliver that level of performance, finishing seventh in his heat and missing the final.

Short was in the mix in the first two-thirds of the race – third as late as 400m to go – before slipping backwards as the race went on. He ended up finishing seventh in 14:58.15s – over twenty seconds slower than last year’s world championships time.

Daniel Wiffen of Ireland won the heat in a fast time of 14:40.45s.

Australia’s 4x100m men’s medley relay team – today consisting of Isaac Cooper, Joshua Yong, Ben Armbruster and Kyle Chalmers – finished third in their heat to book their place in the final.

Cooper was second in 0.18s after a flying first lap but fell behind the top trio by the first change. In the breaststroke, Josh Yong had a brilliant leg to catch up and touch in third, less than half a second off the leaders GB. Armbruster kept Australia right in the hunt by the final change, touching behind the neck-and-neck US and Great Britain. And despite a very close finish as a host of competitors charged for the line, Chalmers held on to finish third in 3:32.24s.

Australia qualified sixth-fastest for the final overall.

The Australian women’s team then took things to another level in their own heat. Backstroker Iona Anderson gave Australia a 0.49s lead over France by the first change. Ella Ramsey was quickly caught in a great battle with the local hopes and China, but managed to make the touch just 0.03s ahead of the Chinese swimmer. In the butterfly leg, China surged clear before Australia’s Alexandria Perkins brilliantly fought back to haul in the rival in the dying metres to lead at the final change. Freestyle star Meg Harris then blasted clear on the final lap to win comfortably in 3:54.81s.

Australia won gold in the event in Tokyo in an Olympic record time of 3:51.60 – just 0.13s in front of the United States.

But in a surprise result in the other heat, Canada beat the United States in 3:56.10s, after the US had a very slow start and needed to power in the second half of the race.

Australia qualified fastest for the final.

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SWIMMING SCHEDULE — DAY 8

All times AEST

7pm — Women’s 50m Freestyle Heats (Shayna Jack qualifies 4th fastest for semis, Meg Harris 5th)

7.30pm — Men’s 1500m Freestyle Heats (Sam Short 7th in heat, misses finals)

8.40pm — Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay Heats (Australia into final sixth fastest)

8.52pm — Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay Heats (Australia into final fastest)

4.30am — Men’s 100m Butterfly Final (Matt Temple, Ben Armbruster)

4.39am — Women’s 50m Freestyle Semifinals (Shayna Jack, Meg Harris)

4.59am — Women’s 200m Individual Medley Final (Kaylee McKeown, Ella Ramsay)

5.09am — Women’s 800m Freestyle Final (Ariarne Titmus, Lani Pallister)

5.33am — Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay Final (Australia)