2021 South Aussies Day 2: McKeown 58.6 100 Back, Temple 51.6 100 Fly

2021 SOUTH AUSTRALIA STATE OPEN & MC C’SHIPS

• Friday, January 22nd – Sunday, January 24th
• SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre, Oaklands Park, South Australia
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap
• Live Results

There are some eye-catching races taking place at the 2021 South Aussie State Open Championships, with Matt Temple, Kaylee McKeown and Madi Wilson among the competitors bringing the heat.

For instance, 21-year-old Nunawading swimmer Temple doubled up on events tonight, reaping gold in both the 100m free and 100m fly.

First, in the 100m free, Temple clocked a time of 48.95 to represent the only sub-49 second swimmer of the field. Splitting 23.66/25.29, Temple’s time represents his own first venture into 48-second territory, edging out his previous lifetime best of 49.29 logged at last month’s Queensland Championships.

Moving on to Temple’s 100m fly, he impressed once again, getting to the wall in a time of 51.68. Opening in 24.40 and coming home in 27.28, Temple’s outing came within striking distance of the South Aussie All Comers Record. That standard sits at the 51.59 Olympic Grant Irvine registered in 2018.

Temple placed 6th in this men’s 100m fly event at the 2019 FINA World Championships, earning a time of 51.51 there in Gwangju. He was very near that with his high-caliber 51.64 posted at the aforementioned Queensland Championships, situating himself in the 6th slot among the season’s world rankings.

Marion’s Madi Wilson already took on a packed schedule day 1 here in Oaklands Park but she showed no signs of stopping with more events tonight. The 26-year-old backstroker-turned-freestyle ace notched the quickest time in the women’s 200m free, posting 1:57.60. That result falls less than a second off of her own South Australia state record of 1:56.85, which she logged last year.

Wilson was also in the women’s 50m fly field, capturing the silver in a time of 26.96. Winning the race was visiting swimmer Alexandria Perkins from USC Spartans. Perkins got to the wall in a 26.84 scorcher, with both women’s results represents their first times under the 27-second threshold in this fast and furious race.

Also coming up big on the women’s side this evening was 19-year-old Kaylee McKeown, following up her massive 50m back win from night 1.

McKeown set herself up for 100m backstroke success with a morning swim of 1:00.31 before dropping it way down to 58.69 to easily beat the field. Splitting 28.73/29.96, McKeown’s time was just .17 off of the 58.52 she produced at this same meet last year, the South Aussie All Comers Record.

McKeown already has been as fast as the 57.93 history-making swim she put up last month, making her the world’s 2nd fastest women’s 100m backstroke performer ever.

As McKeown did yesterday, she paired a backstroke event with a breaststroke race, this time trying the 100m sprint on for size. She successfully claimed gold, stopping the clock in 1:09.44 to edge out a charging Leiston Pickett. Pickett settled for silver in 1:09.65.

McKeown recently logged a lifetime best in this off-event, earning a time of 1:07.85 at the Queensland Championships. Prior to that, her career-quickest rested at the 1:09.16 delivered at that same meet in 2019.

These 2021 South Aussie State Open Championships come to a conclusion tomorrow at the SA Aquatics & Leisure Centre.