2017 Aussie SC C’ships Wrap Up With Morgan Double, McKeon Gold

2017 AUSTRALIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, October 26th – Saturday, October 28th
• SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre, Oaklands Park, South Australia
• SCM
• Heats 10am local (8pm night before EST)/Finals 6pm local (4am EST)
• Meet Site
• Psych Sheets
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Day 1 Prelims Recap
• Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap
• Live Stream (Dolphins FB)
• Live results

The 2017 Australian Short Course Championships wrapped up today, as the 3-day meet finished with more action in Adelaide. Already this morning we reported on young Minna Atherton‘s All Comers Record during the timed final of the women’s 50m backstroke, but several other timed finals were determined in prelims session as well.

Reigning 50m short course breaststroke national champion Georgia Bohl successfully defended her title, although by herself this time. Last year’s edition of the meet saw Bohl and Jessican Hansen tie in 30.93 to stand atop the podium together, but this morning Bohl touched all alone in 30.57 to take gold.

Visiting Lithuanian swimmer Ruta Meilutyte claimed her 2nd silver of the meet, taking the runner-up slot behind Bohl in 30.81. Hansen settled for bronze this year, clocking 30.86 for her efforts.

The men’s 1500m timed final saw a great battle between Aussie Joshua Parrish and visiting American Jordan Wilimovsky. The pair played cat and mouse throughout the entire 1500m, but it was 20-year-old Parrish who ultimately touched the wall first in 14:45.29, beating his title-winning time of 14:45.49 from last year by just two tenths.

Wilimovsy finished just .38 behind in 14:45.67 for silver, while Rio Olympian Jack McLoughlin rounded out the top 3 with his bronze medal-garnering effort of 14:53.18. Olympic champion in the 400m frestyle, Mack Horton, finished off the podium in 14:58.26. He is reportedly under heavy training with Italian training partner Gregorio Paltrinieri.

Of his race, Parrish commented, “It was good to get in and mix it with the big boys and come away with that win. I know I have to get under 15 minutes for long course and my best is 15:13 at the moment but that’s the aim. It would be everything to make the Commonwealth Games team – you put your heart and soul into it so that would be sensational.”

Of note, Olympic open water swimmer Jarrod Poort wasn’t in the race, as the athlete is currently serving a ban for having missed 3 out-of-competition doping tests.

Olympian David Morgan pulled off a double tonight, first taking the men’s 100m fly, then the 50m freestyle just minutes later. In the former event, the fly specialist stopped the clock at a mark of 50.55 to claim the only time of the field under the 51-second barrier. Also in the race was 100m freestyle champion Kyle Chalmers, who finished 6th in a time of 52.66.

Morgan then fired off a time of 21.46 in the men’s splash n’ dash, which proved fast enough to hold off Marion athlete Andrew Abood. Abood, who finished with the silver behind Chalmers in the 100m free event, touched in 21.67 to collected the only other sub-22 second result of the final. Chalmers wound up 9th overall after prelims in 22.49.

Chalmers and Abood both ended their meet with gold in the Marion men’s 4x100m medley relay. Joined by Mahoney and breaststroker Joshua Palmer, the foursome finished atop the podium in 3:33.19, including a 52.93 fly split from Chalmers.

Olympic medalist Emma McKeon added to her hardware haul on the meet, winning the women’s 200m butterfly in a time of 2:04.35, a new personal best. In fact, her outing tonight checks-in as the 7th fastest time ever by an Australian. McKeon says she may consider adding the event to her Commonwealth Games meet program, but will decide as the competition draws closer.

Behind McKeon was Olympic finalist in the 200m fly event, Brianna Throssell of West Australia, clocking a time of 2:06.52.

Finally, Japanese swimmer Daiya Seto highlighted the void of Australian men’s breaststroking, by easily taking the 200m distance tonight in a time of 2:04.57. He had earlier won the men’s 100m IM in the timed final of the morning, stopping the clock in 52.81 to win by well over a second.

Additional Winners on Day 3:

• In Multi-Class action, Grant Patterson took the men’s SB2 100m breaststroke in a time of 2:16.70, while Jasmine Greenwood took the women’s SB version in 1:18.27. The men’s 100m fly S14 went to Mitchell Kildruff in 58.63 and the women’s 100m fly S14 went to Amy Cook in 1:13.89. Both Katja Dedekind and Daniel Fox added to their earlier wins, claiming gold in the women’s S13 and men’s S3 50m backstroke, respectively, in marks of 31.92 and 29.40.
• Marion’s Travis Mahoney took the men’s 400m IM in a time of 4:07.15.
• Bobby Hurley, who is coming off of his stint coaching World Champion South African Chad Le Clos, clocked the fastest 100m backstroke time for gold. His mark of 51.76 represented the only swimmer under the 52-second threshold.
• Olympic finalist Madi Wilson finished first in the women’s 200m freestyle, successfully defending her short course title in a time of 1:54.69, a mark .18 faster than 2016.