World Swimming Championships: Australia’s Short out of 800m freestyle final with food poisoning

Australian swimmer Sam Short will skip the men’s 800 metres freestyle final at the world championships in Singapore later on Wednesday on medical advice after food poisoning.

The 21-year-old was among the top medal contenders in a stacked field including Ireland’s Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen and Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi, but said he had to take the “extremely emotional” decision as his illness escalated quickly.

“After an awesome heat swim which I felt phenomenal, I got very ill very fast, which we believe is food poisoning from my hotel lunch,” Short wrote on Instagram.

“I have only been consuming meals from the hotel. My afternoon and night has been full of vomiting and all the other nasty stuff that comes with food poisoning. Not pleasant and extremely draining.

“I had full intention of competing if I started to show signs of improvement. However this has not happened. I am going to try my best to recover as well as possible to help my team in the 4x200m relay on Friday. Sorry Australia.”

Short, who won the silver medal in the 400m freestyle event on the opening night of competition, had qualified for the 800m final with the second-fastest time of seven minutes and 42.22 seconds, behind Jaouadi and ahead of Germany’s Sven Schwarz.

He will now be replaced in the race by fellow Australian Benjamin Goedemans, who clocked 7:48.66 in the heats.

Several American swimmers have struggled at the worlds in Singapore following an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis, having contracted the illness during their pre-meet training camp in Thailand.