McKeown & O’Callaghan Crush It Once More: 2:03.8 200 Back, 1:53.5 200 Free
They’ve spent the week competing for headlines but Kaylee McKeown and Mollie O’Callaghan deserved several curtain calls apiece as the Australian Open Championships drew to a close today on the Gold Coast.
O’Callaghan was first to wrap up, with a sizzling 1:53.57 win in the 200m freestyle. Rolling like thunder, it flowed like this:
26.46, 55.76 (29.30) 1:25.23 (29.47) 1:53.57 (28.34) Mollie O’Callaghan
27.07, 56.07 (29.00) 1:25.90 (29.83) 1:55.38 (29.48) Ariarne Titmus
27.28 56.44 (29.16) 1:26.56 (30.12) 1:55.99 (29.43) Lani Pallister
O’Callaghan clocked 52.27 in the 100m free and 58.09 over 100m backstroke at the Open. Speed and pace mission accomplished Eoin the way to June Olympic trials. Coach Dean Boxall’s charge charged home in 28.34 for a win that got her inside the 1:54.08 early world ranks leader from Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey.
Olympic champion Titmus and Pallister were within striking distance of the sprinter at the last turn but O’Callaghan’s twitch fibres left 200 and 400m Olympic champion and 800m silver medalist in Tokyo trailing, Pallister under 1~:56 on the way to a 15:57 win in the 1500m free that brought the solo events at the open to a close later in the evening Down Under.
O’Callaghan’s effort was the second fastest of her career, adrift the World record of 1:52.85 that made her a pioneer at Fukuoka 2023 as the first woman to take the 100-200m double since the global showcase got underway in 1973.
The All-Time Top 10: Titmus 4 O’Callaghan 3
All suits:
1:52.85 – Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS) 2023
1:52.98 – Federica Pellegrini (ITA) 2009
1:53.01 – Ariarne Titmus (AUS) 2023
1;53.09 – Titmus (AUS) 2021
1:53.31 – Titmus (AUS) 2022
1:53.50 – Titmus (AUS) 2021
1:53.57 – O’Callaghan (AUS) 2024
1:53.61 – Allison Schmitt (USA) 2012
1:53.65 – Summer McIntosh (CAN) 2023
1:53.66 – O’Callaghan (AUS) 2023
Textile
1:52.85 – Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS) 2023
1:53.01 – Ariarne Titmus (AUS) 2023
1;53.09 – Titmus (AUS) 2021
1:53.31 – Titmus (AUS) 2022
1:53.50 – Titmus (AUS) 2021
1:53.57 – O’Callaghan (AUS) 2024
1:53.61 – Allison Schmitt (USA) 2012
1:53.65 – Summer McIntosh (CAN) 2023
1:53.66 – O’Callaghan (AUS) 2023
1:53.73 – Katie Ledecky (USA) 2016
Beyond the podium, the race for 4x200m space is on: Brianna Throssell 1:56.48, only 0.48 shy of her 1:56.00 lifetime best; Shayna Jack* on 1:56.96; and Jamie Perkins on 1:57.13, which would challenge for gold at nationals in the vast majority of nations worldwide.
And all that two months out from a faster moment … Olympic trials.
McKeown Adds Another Belter To Her 2:06.99/4:28.22 Medley Marks
Several finals after O’Callaghan’s jig, three-times Olympic champion McKeown, her 200m backstroke record at 2:03.14, chucked a 2:03.84 catch-me-if-you-can gauntlet to the rest of the best around then world.
A match with her third best-ever and the time she clocked front the 2023 World title to become the first ever to claim the 50-100-200m triple at the long-course showcase, McKeown now has half the all-time top 10
2:03.14 – Kaylee McKeown AUS 2023
2:03.35 – Regan Smith USA 2019
2:03.69 – Smith USA 2019
2:03.70 – McKeown AUS 2023
2:03.80 – Smith USA 2023
2:03.85 – McKeown AUS 2023
2:03.85 – McKeown AUS 2024
2:03.99 – Smith USA 2023
2:04.06 – Missy Franklin USA 2012
2:04.21 – McKeown AUS 2024
With that effort, McKeown also bumped Regan Smith’s fifth entry in the top 10 down to 11, replacing her as the holder of half the list, with 2012 Olympic champion Missy Franklin holding on in there in 9th.
Two-thirds through April, final prep for June trials ahead, and final prep for Paris in July and August and McKeown is thriving in early autumn down under on the way to a sunny summer outlook in Europe.
The Gold Coast podium was completed by Hannah Fredericks, on a pb of 2:08.92 for a maiden voyage inside 2:09, and Iona Anderson, 2:11.40.
Coach Michael Bohl’s superstar flicked off the constant drip and drop of a deluge in the outdoor pool, embraced the tricky art of swimming straight under the guidance of blanket grey and ticked to the following metronomic mastery:
29.14, 1:00.34 (31.20) 1:32.16 (31.82) 2:03.84 (31.68)
So, 2:06.99, 4:28.22 and 2:03.85 – that’s one way to go into the tunnel to an Olympics with a spring in your stroke.
Pallister Ploughs A Lonely 15:57
The Aussie target time for Paris is 16:01.95 but that must be done at June trials. No matter: Lani Pallister, coached by her mum and former Aussie international Janelle Elford in Bohl’s program, got the better of the Games cut today in 15:57.01 towards the end of a session that started with a 1:55.99 third in the 200m.
Tiana Kritzinger, 16:23.97, and Jacqueline Davison-McGovern, 16:39.18, rounded off the podium in a final Shane Gould would have finished 6th in with her 1973 World record, the last of her global standards before early retirement.
Pallister, meanwhile, looks set for a big drop: her best of 15:48.96 dates back to 2022, the Australia record is 15:46.13, Maddy Gough‘s high from 2021.
Only two women have ever gone inside 15:40: World record holder and Olympic champion Katie Ledecky (with a 15:20.48 stunner) and the Danish champion the American had her first World-titles tussle with back in 2013, Lotte Friis, on 15:38.88 in Barcelona. Ledecky set the global standard at 15:36.53 that day.
What a race that was to witness live! Today, Friis’ best and second all-time sits at No18 on the all-time performances list…
Emma McKeon Back Down To 56.5, Throssell Close
Brianna Throssell had already raced fast, just missed her best 200m free at the start of the session, bay the time she faced the seven-times Olympic medal winner of Tokyo 2020one, so this surely put a smile on her face, even though she could not quite get there as Emma McKeown edged back to her best in the 100m butterfly:
26.09 56.58 (30.49) McKeon
26.59 56.77 (30.18) Throssell
Alexandria Perkins completed the top 3 in 57.73, after 57.71 in heats.
Not quite the Australian Record of 55.72 but McKeon’s win today was the strongest evidence for a while that the champion intends to make her last Olympics count. The 29-year-old has already said Paris will be her Games Swansong. Trials will decide what shape that will take on the psyche sheet.
Chalmers Gathers Momentum – 47.63
Kyle Chalmers got the curtain-closing finals off to a rapid start, the 24-year-old on 47.63 in the 100m freestyle, off splits of 22.91 and 24.72, for a big win ahead of William Yang, on a personal best of 48.20, and Kai Taylor, 48.69.
Chalmers’ training mates include Josha Salchow, who crushed the German record at the Berlin Open last night with a 47.85.
The Rio 2016 Olympic champion had yet to get inside 48sec this year but the writing was win the end wall the he clocked 48.08 in day 4 heats on the Gold Coast.
Yang’s best is further evidence of a fine recovery from back surgery after he pipped Chalmers for the 100m win at NSW in March Not to be overlooked was Yang’s runner-up mark of 48.20, a new personal bet for the SOSC swimmer who had to drop out of the World Championships season last year due to undergoing back surgery.
Out in 23.34 and home in 24.86, Yang got inside his previous high bar of 48.38 from the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Seto & Clareburt In Medley Mash On 4:10s
Daiya Seto, the evergreen Japanese three-times winner of the World 400IM crown, is showing no signs of taking his foot off the gas. In 4:10.44 he got his hand to the wall ahead of New Zealand ace Lewis Clareburt, on 4:10.86, at the close a bash of a bout. Third place went to William Petric in 4:13.55.
Clareburt clocked 4:09.72 for the World title in Doha in February in the absence of all key contenders for the Paris 2024 gold and bypassed the event at his national san trials last week. Seto edged inside his season best of 4:10.84 from Japanese Olympic Trials in March.
Will Japanese selectors budge? The Paris cut for Japan is 4:10.63. No at trials, but now the 29-year-old has done it.
In other finals, Doha world champion in 26.32, Sam Williamson took the breaststroke dash in 27.16 after a heats efforts of 27.07 and Bowen Gough claimed the 200m butterfly on 1:57.85.