15-Yr-Old Sienna Toohey Impresses In 200 IM At 2024 Aussie Age Championships

2024 AUSTRALIAN AGE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Monday, April 8th – Sunday, April 14th
• Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, Queensland, Australia
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Entries
• SwimSwam Preview
• Live Results

The 2024 Australian Age Championships kicked off today from Queensland with some of the nation’s most exciting young stars in the pool.

For some, the competition is a stepping stone for the Australian National Championships occurring next week, as well as the Australian Olympic Trials on the calendar for June.

This competition is a qualification opportunity in its own right, with athletes vying for slots on the Junior Pan Pacific Championshps roster.

Highlights

18-year-old Flynn Southam took on an uncharacteristic 400m freestyle today and wound up topping the podium. The World Championships medalist clocked a time of 3:52.13 to get the job done, beating out Anders McAlpine and Johann Szymanski in the process.

McAlpine scored silver in 3:52.44 and Szymanski posted 3:52.93 in the tight battle to the wall.

Southam’s effort represents the 2nd-best time of his career, sitting only behind the 3:52.07 registered at last year’s Sydney Open.

The girls’ 16-year-old 100m breaststroke saw an impressive time scored at the hands of Hayley Mackinder.

Mackinder, coached by two-time Olympian Thomas Fraser-Holmes, touched in a time of 1:08.89, hitting the sole time of the field under the 1:10 barrier.

Julia Remington of All Saints settled for silver in 1:10.25 while Ella Mounter logged 1:10.31 to round out the podium.

Mackinder’s time was just off her PB of 1:08.62 from finishing 9th in the event at the 2023 World Junior Championships.

Finally, 15-year-old Sienna Toohey continued her momentum from already-quick performances this year in the breaststroke.

Tonight the Albury athlete took on the 200m IM where she grabbed gold in 2:16.65.

That narrowly defeated Rocky City’s Amelie Smith who touched less than half a second back in 2:16.93. Manly’s Lillie McPherson also landed on the podium in 2:17.36 for the bronze medal.

Toohey’s performance clobbered her previous career-best mark of 2:21.06 from February’s NSW Country Championships.

Smith also destroyed the fastest she had been entering this meet, a standard of 2:18.64 from December’s Queensland Championships.

Both Toohey and Smith check themselves in on the list of all-time Aussie 15-year-old girls’ performers.

All-Time Fastest Aussie 15-Yr-Old Girl 200 IM Performers

1. Kaylee McKeown – 2:13.93, 2017
2. Tara Kinder – 2:14.66, 2019
3. Ellen Fullerton – 2:14.73, 2008
4. Ella Ramsay – 2:15.18, 2019
5. Emily Seebhom – 2:16.32, 2008
6. Jenna Forrester – 2:16.33, 2019
7. Emma Johnson  – 2:16.56, 1996
8. Sienna Toohey – 2:16.65, 2024
9. Amelie Smith – 2:16.93, 2024
10. Charli Brown – 2:17.03, 2018