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Simpson, 25, turned heads earlier on Wednesday
when he upstaged Olympic freestyle gold medallist Kyle Chalmers
and won his heat in a personal best time of 51.79 seconds behind
defending champion Matt Temple (51.64).
Temple clocked 51.50 in the final while Chalmers, who won 100m
freestyle gold in Rio and silver in Tokyo, also improved to
51.67.
Simpson's 51.96 matched governing body FINA's A qualifying time
for next month's world championships in Budapest.
With Chalmers not attending the event, Simpson is on track for a
remarkable world championships debut, according to local media
reports.
"I didn't even think I’d be remotely competitive until this year
at the earliest, so to make the team is just a bonus on the way
to Paris," Simpson told Amazon.
The top three in the final under the A time qualify for the July
28-Aug. 8 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
Simpson, a talented junior swimmer before pursuing a music
career in his teens, finished eighth in the 100 butterfly final
at Australia's Olympic trials last year to fall short of a place
in the Tokyo team.
Twice Olympic 1,500m freestyle champion Grant Hackett tipped a
big meeting in Adelaide for Simpson before the trials.
"I actually think Cody’s a real chance," said TV pundit Hackett.
"He's done all the work. He looks super fit and the body’s in
good shape."
Shayna Jack returned from a doping ban to finish second, behind
Mollie O'Callaghan, in the women's 100 metres freestyle final to
secure a place in the Australia team for the world championships
and Commonwealth Games.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne and Amlan Chakraborty in
New Delhi; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Ed Osmond)
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