2023 SYDNEY OPEN & UNISPORT NATIONALS
- Friday, May 12th – Sunday, May 14th
- Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center (SOPAC)
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Site
- Start Lists
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Prelims Recap
- Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Finals Recap
- Live Results
Cameron McEvoy is on a roll.
After clocking the two fastest 50-meter freestyle times by an Australian since 2017 on Friday, the 28-year-old sprint specialist blazed his quickest 50 butterfly time in seven years at the 2023 Sydney Open on Sunday morning.
McEvoy registered a 23.67 to qualify second in the 50 fly prelims, reaching the wall a blink faster than his time from last month’s Australian Championships (23.68) and just a tenth off his personal-best 23.57 from the 2016 Australian Championships. Ben Armbruster, 21, went 23.45 to lead the 50 fly heats, four-tenths off his lifetime best from last month’s Australian Championships (23.05).
The men’s 200 free final could feature a fun battle between Flynn Southam (1:49.81), Matthew Temple (1:51.05), and Kyle Chalmers (1:51.51), though the 17-year-old Southam was more than a second faster than the 23-year-old Temple and 24-year-old Chalmers during prelims. Southam was just a few seconds off his personal-best 1:46.67 from last month’s Australian Championships.
28-year-old Madison Wilson posted a new season-best time of 53.63 in the 100 free, the only woman under 54 seconds during prelims. Meg Harris, 21, qualified second with a 54.08. Wilson and Harris’s lifetime bests are 52.76 and 52.92, respectively, both from the 2021 Australian Trials.
A pair of world record holders were also in action on Sunday morning.
Kaylee McKeown led the 200 back heats with a 2:14.50, just over a tenth ahead of Ingelborg Vassbakk Loeyning’s 2:14.62. When the 21-year-old McKeown broke the world record in this event two months ago at the New South Wales State Open Championships (2:03.14), she went 2:10.89 in prelims.
24-year-old Zac Stubblety-Cook took the top qualifying spot in the 200 breast with a 2:10.28, just about a second off his season-best time from last month’s Australian Championships. His lifetime best is the world-record 2:05.95 from last May.
Other top qualifiers from the final morning of the 2023 Sydney Open included 22-year-old Brendon Smith in the 400 IM (4:26.75), 22-year-old Brittany Castelluzzo in the 100 fly (59.76), 26-year-old Talara-Jade Dixon in the 50 breast (31.75), and 24-year-old Bradley Woodward in the 100 back (55.10).
Mediocre times other than kaylee and zac
Shame so many big name scratches but Kaylee and Zac both produced great times
Pallister has been a bit faster in season this year than last year:
2022 2023
200FR 1:58.88 1:57.35
400FR 4:06.20 4:04.88
800FR 8:25.01 8:22.93
Very promising. Very interested to see how the 200 relay will shake out.
Obviously MOC and Titmus are the front runners. After them Wilson, Jack, McKeon, Pallister, Neale and Melverton could all factor in. Possibly Throssell or Harris or a few more too.
I would say Jack is almost a lock at this point as well leaving only one spot left in the final. If McKeon is in fact back in shape and swimming the 200 she’s the favourite to take the last spot.
Oh a Titmus-MOC-Jack-McKeon 200 free relay with the first ever full sub 1:55 group would be delicious.
Theoretical best performances:
MOC (1:54.01) + Jack (1:54.87 (best flat minus 0.5)) + McKeon (1:54.55 (just used her best flat without adjusting for relay split because her peak is probably behind her) + Titmus (1:52.82) = 7:36.25 WR by 3 seconds oof
Surely there’ll be a bum leg in there somewhere.
The countdown to trials now begins!
Is Amazon Prime covering the meet again?
No, that contract ended last year. It will be streamed on 9Now.
No confirmation on whether it will be on FTA yet, but I’m confident it will be.
Damn. Amazon Prime did a topnotch job. I doubt that 9Now’s will be anywhere near as good, but I shall be very pleased if I’m wrong.
Amazon was great but at least it won’t be paywalled now.
But the rest of the world can’t watch
Any chance 9Now isn’t geoblocked for Americans?
Would he surprised if it’s not blocked but Australian geoblocks are usually easy to bypass.
*be
I wonder if Chalmers has narrowed his focus back to free again?
One would hope so. His trajectory at best would be semi-finals. Am curious as the level of his commitment to 4X200 may be.
Faster than expected from ZSC. One would hope we see 2.06 at Trials as the competition is looking somewhat stiffer this year.
Just a 2.04.19 from McKeown LOL…. she clearly seems to like the SOPAC pool; probably wishes they were holding Trials there.
He never had a realistic chance of doing anything major in fly, but I think training for it and entering fly events helps him keep some passions and focus. I assume he’ll keep doing it just for joy but don’t see him making the team in any fly events in Paris.
First PB for Petric in the 200 breast since he was 16 albeit only 0.01s. Maybe he can do a bigger one at trials when tapered.
Ill take that any day Mr Cook…see yah in Melb
I’d love to see ZSC give this a crack. But i know it’s unlike Mr Professional
2.07.62. Nice swim.
That is fast. Didn’t think he would bother.
3rd this season. I’m excited what he will produce at trials