2016 AUSTRALIAN SHORT COURSE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Brisbane Aquatic Centre, Brisbane, Queensland
- Thursday, November 3rd – Saturday, November 5th
- Prelims 10am local (8pm Eastern night before)/Finals 6pm local (4am Eastern)
- Meet Preview
- Start Lists
- Live Results
The men kicked the first finals session off with a swift win by 25-year-old comeback kid Dan Smith in the 400m freestyle. Clocking a time of 3:41.53, the 2016 Olympian scored the 2nd fastest SCM time of his career, helping lend credibility he made the right choice moving to Coach Michael Bohl after longtime Miami coach Denis Cotterell decided to take an extended coaching break.
Smith’s outing was enough to hold off surging Joshua Parrish, as Parrish touched less than 2 seconds behind in 3:42.85. For the 19-year-old, that time crushes his previous personal best of 3:55.93 headed into this meet. Miami Swimming Club’s Jacob Vincent, wound up with the bronze in 3:45.90 as a solid follow-up to his two bronze medal-winning performances at this summer’s Junior Pan Pacific Championships.
Double World Champion Emily Seebohm easily took the women’s 200m backstroke title, clinching the gold in a mark of 2:01.82. That was well ahead of a talented, but young field that included 18-year-old Amy Forrester from Bond. Forrester nabbed silver in 2:04.78, followed by 15-year-old Kaylee McKeown who earned bronze in 2:05.42. For McKeown, sister of breaststroker Taylor, her best time headed into the meet was 2:07.70 from last year, so the teen is well on her way to entering the senior ranks of this competitive event. As is World Junior Record Holder Minna Atherton, as the 15-year-old touched in 2:05.86 for 5th overall in Brisbane.
Nunawading‘s Jessica Hansen earned her first title of the meet, claiming victory in the women’s 100m breaststroke race. Splitting 31.17/34.11, Hansen clocked a final time of 1:05.25, beating her own personal best by half a second. It also crushed her best time thus far of 2016, which was the 1:06.63 thrown down at September’s Victorian Open Championships.
Pelican Waters’ Tessa Wallace and St. Peters Western’s Georgia Bohl made it a two-woman race for silver, but Wallace charge to the wall in 1:06.15 to Bohl’s 1:06.35 for silver in today’s race.
The men’s 100m freestyle battle saw an unexpected turn of events, as 18-year-old Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers withdrew right before the race due to a heart condition. You can read more about his known condition here. Surging to the top of the minus-one-man field was Bond’s Cameron McEvoy, the speedster who holds the fastest time ever in a textile suit in the LCM version of this event.
Today, McEvoy earned the win in a time of 46.19, a personal best for ‘The Professor.’ The mark also checks in as a new All Comers Record, overtaking the previous standard of 46.29 held by Matthew Abood since all the way back in 2009.
Finishing with the silver tonight is veteran Tommaso D’Orsogna, who, after switching to Somerset as his training base, scored a personal best time tonight of 46.63. At 25 years of age, that’s a great sign the mainstay competitor has some fast times left in the tank.
Bronze went to 18-year-old Bond stud Brayden McCarthy (47.32), who is just making a name for himself on the international scene. McCarthy traveled with Chalmers to the Singapore stop of the World Cup series, where the former garnered two bronze place finishes. McCarthy found himself on the podium in 3rd place in both the 100m freestyle (47.23) and 100m butterfly (51.24) events overseas.
More 2016 Olympians made their meet debut today, as Brittany Elmslie solidified herself on the short course sprinting stage with a win in the women’s 100m freestyle. 52.36 is what the 22-year-old Brisbane Grammar athlete registered today to represent the only swimmer to dip beneath the 53-second threshold. For Elmslie, a member of Australia’s gold medal-winning 4x100m free relay in Rio, her time today is a personal best by 3 tenths of a second. The 22-year-old also raced to a 4×100 freestyle relay lead-off of 52.98 to score her 2nd sub-53-second result of the night.
Madeline Groves, 200m butterfly silver medalist in Rio, took silver in the 100m sprint event, touching in 53.10 to knock two tenths off of her morning time of 53.31. Madison Wilson, who finaled in the women’s 100m backstroke at this summer’s Olympics, touched today in 53.19 to take the bronze. Commercial’s Bronte Campbell, the reigning World Champion in the LCM version of this event, settled for 4th in 53.21, just having been back to training since last month due to injuries.
Additional Winners:
- David Morgan took the men’s 200m butterfly in 1:51.86.
- 17-year-old Calypso Sheridan clinched her first Aussie national title, winning the women’s 400m IM in 4:34.42.
- In the women’s 800m freestyle, Kiah Melverton was able to out-touch last year’s winner, Jessica Ashwood, by just .14 of a second. Melverton earned gold in 8:18.21 to Ashwood’s silver medal-winning 8:18.35.