Chalmers swims in Australian Championships
Port Lincoln Times
CAMERON MCEVOY BLASTS TO HELM OF WORLD PACE
WITH 21.5 DASH TO WORLD TITLES
SwimVortex.com
AUSSIE ‘OLYMPIC BIG GUNS VS GEN NEXT’: 200M
BATTLE LOOMS ON DAY 2 AT BRISBANE TRIALS
SwimVortex.com
EMMA MCKEON FLIES TO SOLE AUSSIE TICKET TO
BUDAPEST WORLD TITLES IN 57.2 THERE & BACK
SwimVortex.com
Chalmers swims in Australian Championships
Jarrad Delaney
10 April 2017
Port Lincoln Times
CHAMPIONSHIPS: Kyle Chalmers at the Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming
Championships in Brisbane. Picture: Swimming Australia Ltd.
Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers is racing for World Championships selection in the
Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Championships, which began in Brisbane on
Sunday.
The best swimmers from across Australia gathered at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre to race for
selection for the Australian team competing in the FINA World Championships in Hungary in
July.
Chalmers started his championships on a high note as a part of the winning Marion team in
the 4x100 metres freestyle relay on Sunday night.
He then raced in the 200m freestyle preliminaries on Monday but most eyes will be watching
his performance in the 100m freestyle, the event he won gold in at the 2016 Rio Olympics, on
Wednesday.
In an interview with Swimming Australia, Chalmers said he was back to focusing on
swimming after his Christmas break.
Chalmers raced in the South Australian State Championships in January but illness forced him
out of the New South Wales Championships last month.
He said he was focused on making the team for the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast
next year.
“World Championships will be good if I make the team but if not I’ve got my goals set on the
Commonwealth Games here in 2018, on the Gold Coast,” he said.
The 100m freestyle preliminary final and final will see Chalmers race against Commonwealth
and Australian record holder, and Australian champion Cameron McEvoy.
Chalmers said it was a privilege to be racing against McEvoy in his home state.
“He’s done a massive block of training leading into this and I know he’s in good shape and
I’ve read a few articles to see that he has improved his stroke and that sort of thing,” he said.
“It’s really exciting, he’s one of my great mates and I hope that he bounces back this year and
smashes it up, not only here but at World Champs.”
CAMERON MCEVOY BLASTS TO HELM OF WORLD PACE
WITH 21.5 DASH TO WORLD TITLES
Craig Lord
9 April 2017
SwimVortex.com
Cameron McEvoy - by Delly Carr / Swimming Australia Ltd
Cameron McEvoy, coached by Richard Scarce at Bond, became the third Australian within
the first hour of Hancock Prospecting Australian Championships to top the 2017 world
rankings on booking a berth on the Budapest-bound plane for the World Championships in
July.
When he gets there, sporting the 21.55sec blast he delighted the Brisbane crowd with today,
McEvoy will be two seasons beyond silver in the 100m freestyle at Kazan world titles and a
year beyond no prize at all in the solo sprints at the Rio Olympics despite having arrived in
Brazil the hot favourite for the two-lap crown.
It wasn’t to be. Instead, the moment when the 47.04sec man from trials a year ago slumped
back to his fifth best of the year on 48.12 in the big final, the memory of the 11 times he had
swum faster, including eight sub-48s, doubtless swilling through his sinews, turned golden for
different reasons.
McEvoy had had a bad day. His teeenage teammate Kyle Chalmers had had the 47.58sec of
his life, the day of his life, a pivotal moment in a lifetime.
Chalmers waited on the deck for McEvoy to get the weight of the moment out of his legs and
off his shoulders an find the strength to climb out. The crowd, Australian teammates at the
helm of the cry, cheered, Good sport. And then McEvoy pointed with a deliberate motion to
Chalmers, his expression as if to say ‘him, not me – what a job – terrific’. Cue another roar –
and one well deserved by both men.
It takes steal to do a 21.5 over 50m free. It takes even more steel to endure and resolve to
continue when the biggest of moments leaves you feeling smaller than all the work was
intended.
Chalmers bypassed the dash in Brisbane, his focus the 100 and 200 to come, though he was in
action today. He split 48.22 bringing Marion A home to victory in the 4x100m freestyle in
3:20.48. Travis Mahoney, Hayden Lewis and Andrew Abood built the win in the first three
legs.
The silver and second berth for the Budapest dash went to James Roberts, a man who has
known his own moments of boom and bust on sprint freestyle. Today, he sprinted below
22sec for silver in 21.91, good for a ticket to world titles inside the 22.02 cut. Through the ups
and downs, victory is in finding the strength to go and on and prosper anew.
All of which left the Australians at 1 and 3 on the world rankings for 2017 either side of Ben
Proud, the Englishman who pipped McEvoy and James Magnussen, bypassing the race in
2017, for Commonwealth gold in both the free and ‘fly dashes as a teenager at Glasgow 2014
when it was most unexpected, two results that prove the point that it is never over until it is
over:
Men 50M Freestyle
1
21.55
Cameron McEvoy
AUS , 23
Australian Championships
AUS, Brisbane
2
21.74
Benjamin Proud
GBR , 22
Golden Tour
FRA, Marseilles
3
21.91
James Roberts
AUS , 25
Australian Championships
AUS, Brisbane
4
21.97
Brad Tandy
RSA , 25
South African Championships
RSA, Durban
5
22.00
Luca Dotto
ITA , 26
Italian Championships
ITA, Riccione
AUSSIE ‘OLYMPIC BIG GUNS VS GEN NEXT’: 200M
BATTLE LOOMS ON DAY 2 AT BRISBANE TRIALS
Craig Lord
10 April 2017
SwimVortex.com
Clyde Lewis and Dan Smith - heading to the Olympic big guns Vs Gen Next 200 free final by Delly Carr / Swimming Australia Ltd
Down Under, they’re calling in the battle of Olympic big guns VS ‘Gen Next’: the 200m
shoot-out in the land of Ian Thorpe.
The four-lap final on the second day at Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming
Championships in Brisbane will feature Cameron McEvoy, Kyle Chalmers, Mack Horton,
David McKeon and Daniel Smith.
Bond’s three-time defending champion McEvoy followed up a 21.55 in the dash victory
yesterday with 1:47.97 in 200m heats, Melbourne Vicentre’s Olympic 400m freestyle
champion Horton clocked 1:48.31 the morning after a 3:44 blast in the 400m, St Peters
Western’s two-time Olympian McKeon 1:48.27 the day after silver in the 400m for 7th man
through.
Then there was Olympic 100m champion Chalmers, on 1:48.03 the night after a 48.22
bringing Marion home to 4x100m relay victory.
All of the above have four men to chase: St Peters Western’s Daniel Smith, on 1:47.57,
McEvoy’s Bond Swimming training partner Alexander Graham, on 1:47.70, St Peters
Western rookies, Clyde Lewis (1:47.84) and Jack Cartwright (1:47.98).
Whoever gets the solo berths, Australia is looking at a sharp 4x200m, too. Hold on tight.
Swimming Australia sets up the action in other events tonight in the following preview:
MATTHEW WILSON (SOPAC), who agonisingly missed the Olympic team in this event last
year, looked very much in control of his 200m breaststroke heat – qualifying in 2:10.51,
ahead of George Harley (Breakers, WA) who clocked a personal best time of 2:11.94 and
Daniel Cave (Melbourne Vicentre) also a personal best of 2:12.79. The world championship
qualifying time of 2:09.64 certainly looks within Wilson’s grasp this time.
EMMA MCKEON (St Peters Western) showed no ill-effects from her second-placed swim to
Bronte Campbell in last night’s 100m freestyle final to back up and clock the fastest
qualifying time into the 100m butterfly final in 58.15 from fellow Rio Olympian Brianna
Throssell (UWA West Coast) 59.1 and Gemma Cooney (Brisbane Grammar) 59.27.
EMILY SEEBOHM (Brisbane Grammar) the defending world champion will be chasing her
10th 100m backstroke title after heading the qualifiers this morning in 59.86 from Hayley
Baker (Melbourne Vicentre) 1:00.54 and World Championship silver medallist Madi Wilson
(St Peters Western) 1:00.57.
BLAIR EVANS (UWA West Coast) looked classy in this morning’s 400IM heats clocking
4:43.67 with Meg Bailey (Hunter) 4:48.16 and Rio Olympian Keryn McMaster (Chandler)
4:48.17 sure to improve on their times tonight as will Kiah Melverton (TSS Aquatics) 4:48.21
and Australia’s 10km marathon Olympian Chelsea Guebecka (Kawana Waters) 4:48.30.
JESSICA HANSEN (Nunawading) looked the best of the girls in this morning’s 100m
breaststroke heats clocking 1:07.74 ahead of Olympians Georgia Bohl (St Peters Western)
1:08.29 and Taylor McKeown (USC Spartans) 1:08.64.
CHRISTOPHER RAVEN (USC Spartans) 23.95 leads the qualifiers in the men’s 50m
butterfly final that includes Rio Olympians Grant Irvine (St Peters Western) 24.28 and last
night’s 100m butterfly winner David Morgan (TSS Aquatics) 24.30).
EMMA MCKEON FLIES TO SOLE AUSSIE TICKET TO
BUDAPEST WORLD TITLES IN 57.2 THERE & BACK
Craig Lord
10 April 2017
SwimVortex.com
Emma McKeon - by Delly Carr / Swimming Australia Ltd
Emma McKeon booked her first solo berth on the Budapest-bound team for world titles with a
dominant 57.27 victory in the 100m butterfly at Hancock Prospecting Australian
Championships in Brisbane today.
The Olympic 200m freestyle medallist was out in 26.58 and, effectively, gone. There wasn’t a
rival within a second of her at the turn. Perhaps they will learn from it: no others made the
58.05 cut. Fastest out, McKeon was swiftest back, on 30.69.
The silver went to Brianna Throssell, who overhaled Jemma Schlict and Gemma Cooney,
both on 27.67 at the turn, in the sprint for the wall. Throssell clocked 58.83, Schlict taking
bronze in 59.08, Cooney, still only 17, on 59.17.
Mckean’s win places her third in the world on the early season rankings, in the good company
of aces who will be gunning for medals in Budapest, chief among them Olympic champion
Sarah Sjostrom, on 56.26 in Stockholm yesterday, with Olympic silver medallist Penny
Oleksiak a touch down on the Australian champion’s pace at Victoria trials in Canada last
week:
The 2017 pace-setters:
Women 100M Butterfly
1
56.26
Sarah Sjostrom
SWE , 23
Swim Open
SWE, Stockholm
2
56.89
Rikako Ikee
JPN , 16
Kosuke Kitajima Cup
JPN, Tokyo
3
57.27
Emma McKeon
AUS , 22
Australian Championships
AUS, Brisbane
4
57.35
Penny Oleksiak
CAN , 16
Canadian Championships
CAN, Victoria
5
57.90
Ilaria Bianchi
ITA , 26
Italian Championships
ITA, Riccione
Triumph But No Instant Ticket For Taylor
In the 100m breaststroke final, Taylor McKeown
claimed the crown but must wait to see if she is
selected for action in Budapest at world titles. The
likelihood that she will be is strong: Australia needs a
breaststroke leg for its medley relay.
In terms of a solo two-lap challenge, there is work to
be done Down Under and the reigning champion
Georgia Bohl is having an off season, on 1:08.29 in
fourth today, after a 1:06.12 victory at Olympic trials last year.
The crown went to 200m specialist McKeown, USC Spartans, in 1:07.23 after she rattled past
the first-lap leaders after turning in 32.17. Jessica Hansen, at the helm on 31.65 half-way, took
silver in 1:07.33, Leiston Pickett, on 31.96 at the turn, claiming bronze in 1:07.52.
There were no take either in the 400m medley, Blair Evans the champion in 4:41.46, followed
by Meg Bailey, on 4:43.67, and Kiah Melverton, on 4:44.06.