Australian Trials End With A Change Of Sprint Guard & A China Crisis Hanging Heavy In The Air
The 50-to-1500 last-session sandwich at Australian trials stretched from a 23.99 win for Shayna Jack* in a 50m freestyle that is likely to have marked the dash swansongs of Olympic champion Emma McKeown and former World champion Cate Campbell, to a 15:53.79 victory and fourth ticket to Paris for Lani Pallister in the 1500m freestyle.
The filling stacked with a complete set of qualifiers in all finals, including both 400m medleys, barring the men’s 100 ‘fly – and even then the second bloke home was already through the departure gate for Paris.
By the close of speedy business, a school of 44 Dolphins had made the class of 2024 for the XXXIII Olympiad, to be hoisted in the French capital for the third time since the II Olympiad in 1900.
The Australian curtain-closer at the Brisbane Aquatics Centre got underway with Jack’s 23.99 blast. Her maiden sub-24 swim equals the 59th best ever performance but here’s the thing: ten of the 14 women ever to have swum faster will not be in the Paris fray.
They include, as of today, McKeon, Tokyo 2020One champion in 23.81 but third today in 24.32 behind Meg Harris‘ 24.26, and Cate Campbell, Commonwealth and Australian record holder in 23.78 but 7th today in 24.76.
Jack, coached by Dean Boxall at St Peters Western, had a best of 24.01 from semi-finals at world title in Japan last year. She remains all-time Australia No4 adrift the aforementioned and Libby Lenton, who set a world record of 23.97 in 2008 in a first-gen 50% shiny suit at Australian Championships.
Among current swimmers either qualified or about to seek qualification at U.S. Trials that get underway today, Jack (and all the rest) heads to Paris facing this challenge: Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, global pace setter at an other-worldly 23.61, has swam inside 23.99 35 times and matched it once. So, a ratio of 40:1 to the Australian in sub-24 sprint experience heading into battle.
There are no guarantees, of course. Still set the amazing Sjostrom, World 50 and 100 ‘fly and 100m free world record holder and Olympic 200m silver medallist, and her pioneering world-class dash consistency aside for a moment and you have to reduce the four prevailing members of the 24-flat and under club to three.
Why? Because three of the four are Americans and only two of them can qualify for the Paris dash: Kate Douglass and Simone Manuel, with respective bests of 23.91 and 23.97 are divided by the 23.95 of Poland’s late-bloomer Katarzyna Wasick, 31 and on 23.95 at February World titles this year. And 0.01sec behind Jack’s new high is the third American, Abbey Weitzeil.
The Brisbane final
23.99 Shayna Jack* Q
24.26 Meg Harris Q
24.32 Emma McKeon
24.45 Olivia Wunsch
24.46 Bronte Campbell
24.49 Mollie O’Callaghan
24.76 Cate Campbell
25.02 Alexandra Perkins
The Backdrop Of An Australian Nightmare & A Test Of Faith In The World Anti-Doping System
Jack’s success at trials today reminds all of the nightmare of a drugs bombshell she’s lived through (hence the asterisk by her name when we at SOS mention her in common with our policy on anti-doping). Jack tested positive for the anabolic agent Ligandrol, popular with bodybuilders, in 2019 and was flow home from 2019 World titles in Gwangju before the meet got underway “for personal reasons”. Those proved to be a positive doping test.
She posted on Instagram a note to say she “would never intentionally take a banned substance that would disrespect my sport and jeopardise my career”. ASADA investigations led to a decision that her case was one of “unintentional ingestion” of Ligandrol. A two-year suspension was imposed.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) challenge that at the Court of Arbitration for Sport on grounds that they wanted Jack served with a full four-year penalty. However, in September 2021, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed that appeal.
By then, Jack had served her two years and was immediately free to train with her squad under the guidance of a coach linked to the national program – and was able to start racing again as soon as she was ready.
Why raise all of that? Well, because it’s what happened and it highlights the high bar and accountability that swimmers face the world over in the fight to keep sport clean in a world where rogues who love loopholes and couldn’t care less about the impact of leaping through them, including states like Putin’s Russia and its impact on the nation’s own youth.
And because of this:
Chinese Three Of The 23-Go-Free Were Set Free When They Tested Positive For Clenbuterol in 2016-17
Does that explain why Qin Haiyang(*) has one of the most bizarre profiles in the sport, a peak at 17 years of age and then, highly unusually among men, a loss of form through his peak growth years before he emerged as a world-record holding triple World champion in 2023, eight years beyond a trace of clenbuterol being found in his teenage body.
(*) the swimmer has not been held to account by anti-doping authorities nor been served a penalty, however, under the circumstances and pending deeper investigations and inquiries clearly required, we will not the reason a bracketed asterisk will sit next to those about to race in Paris under the cloud of worldwide condemnation of the circumstances of the China Crisis and schism in the anti-doping system.
Given the nightmare of trying to prove what she has maintained throughout as her innocence, it has surprised no-one that Jack has remained silent on the latest China doping crisis, despite the obvious head-shaking difference in the treatment of Chinese swimmers and others who “inadvertently” test positive but have to take the wrap under rules that state all athletes are responsible for what finds its way into their blood streams.
Beyond Paris, it seems, we can expect to hear from Jack on how it feels to feel you’re being held to a different standard.
She told News Corp on the last day of trials: “For now, I’m just focusing on my dream and not letting anything crush that. To be honest, I’ve tried to put it on the back burner for now. My focus has been on the Olympics and getting through the trials and through to the Olympics. I really appreciate there’s been a lot of people who have reached out and wanted to know my thoughts and my opinion, but I’ll definitely be commenting on it after the Olympics.”
Australian Head coach Rohan Taylor had this to say on freedom of expression and the circumstances ion which swimmers opt to exercise their right:
“If they have their own personal opinion, that I’ve got no problems with. They can express that themselves. It’s not for me to talk about that. If somebody’s not doing the right thing, we hope the system catches them and that’s basically how we work because our guys get tested all the time too. We’re in the same boat. We have to trust that WADA and World Aquatics are going to continue to investigate and that we are aligned with a clean sport. For it to be a distraction, I think it’s probably a waste of energy.”
Rohan Taylor – Photo: Taylor celebrates the gathering of the Dolphins set for the Paris Olympics at the team announcement in Brisbane today – by Delly Carr, courtesy of Swimming Australia
When you’re main opponent is one of those who now appears to have two positive tests on his record and two -go-free decisions attached to them, the rub is raw.
Olympic 200m breaststroke champion Zac Stubblety-Cook had this to say: “It does affect me and it affects a lot of other athletes as well, including [members of the Australia’s women’s] 4×200 relay. For me personally, it’s something I’ve had to kind of go, well, this sucks, but what can I do about it? I have to have faith in the WADA system.”
And that’s where we are: WADA called an “independent” investigation into the 2021 cases and subsequent decisions. Run by retired Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier, the investigation is due to report soon.
The Australian Trials Curtain-Closer
Against that backdrop, Australian Trials concluded in Brisbane with a full set of qualifiers in all events barring the men’s 100m butterfly today.
After the dash came the 400m medley finals. Brendon Smith, Tokyo bronze medallist, took the final in 4:10.18, 19-year-old Will Petric shadowing him to a 4:11.78 ticket to his Olympic debut. Third place went to David Schlicht in 4:20.78.
The Smith Vs Petric flow:
56.46; 2:00.31; 3:12.31; 4:10.18 Smith
56.75; 2:03.28; 3:13.12; 4:11.78 Petric
In the women’s final, Ella Ramsay made it a third ticket to a solo event in Paris after silver in the 200m medley adrift Kaylee McKeown’s 2:06.63 Commonwealth record, and victory in the 200m breaststroke. One of four second-generation Olympians to make the Australian team for Paris, Ramsay, coached by Vince Raleigh at Chandler clocked a lifetime best of 4:36.56 ahead of Jenna Forrester, on 4:38.16, 5sec down on best but good for Olympic selection. Kiah Melverton was third in 4:42.82.
The Ramsay Vs Forrester flow:
1:03.43; 2:14.16; 3:31.29; 4:36.56 Ramsay, 19
1:03.47; 2:13.46; 3:33.34; 4:38.16 Forrester, 20
In the 100m butterfly, Matt Temple was the sole qualifier, in 51.15, Ben Armbruster, already on the team for the 50 free, next home in 51.23, 0.06sec off the cut, Shaun Champion third in 51.40, with 19-year-old Jesse Coleman on 51.51 and Cody Simpson on 51.79, his campaign to make the 2024 Olympics at an end this day.
Trials concluded with Pallister’s 15:53.79 win in the 1500m freestyle. On 15:57.85, Moesha Johnson, of late based in Germany at the distance squad in Magdeburg where Bernd Berkhahn hones the likes of Florian Wellbrock, Luka Martens and Isabel Gose, was also inside the cut for Paris. Tia Kritzinger third home in 16:20.58.
Brisbane Results in full / Event Page
The pre-Paris form guide is getting closer to being complete, the hosts France set to stage their trials from tomorrow, the United States from today for nine days, following the Olympic schedule.
On June 23, Olympic Day and the closing day for entries to the Paris Olympics, SOS will launch a new service that will include our Paris 2024 Olympic coverage two other special features to be announced in the coming week.