Chalmers Rather Quiet On Day 1 Of 2016 South Australian States

• Wednesday, January 20th – Saturday, January 23rd
• Prelims at 9am local (5:30pm previous night Eastern); Finals at 5pm local (1:30am Eastern)
• SA Aquatics & Leisure Center, Oaklands Park, Australia
• Event Schedule and Timing
• SA Champs Entry List
• Meet Preview
• Live Results

Tackling a monster schedule at the South Australian Long Course State Championships spanning today through Saturday, 17-year-old Kyle Chalmers kicked off his meet rather quietly.  The recently-signed Adidas athlete is slated to swim 7 individual events plus relays and kicked off his competition with 2 races today, the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly.

Although Chalmers went 2-for-2 in age group gold, his times were on the lackluster end of his typically impressive spectrum.  Chalmers holds his nation’s 13-, 14-, 15-, 16- and 17-year age group records in the event, with 22.19 representing his quickest time to date. That earned him gold at last year’s World Junior Championships.

Today, Chalmers clocked 23.45 in prelims and wound up winning his age bracket in a finals time of 23.56, so the Marion Swim Club athlete was well-off his collection of sub-23 times. As mentioned, though, it was enough to take home the 17-18 year old win over the next closest competitor, Thomas Wotton, who scored a time of 24.21 for silver.

In the 19+ age group, Chalmers’ Marion teammate, Andrew Abood, scored the win with a time of 23.04 to represent the only seasoned athlete touching in a sub-24-second time in the entire men’s field, besides Chalmers.

Chalmers also brought home the gold in his age group’s 100 butterfly race, stopping the clock at 53.90 to register the only sub-54-second time of the field. Wotton, once again, found himself in the runner-up role, touching in 54.37 for silver in the 17-18 age group. Both men earned times quicker than that of the entire 19+ over field, which saw 20-year-old Hayden Lewis earn the state title in 55.72.

In light of the overall field’s performance, Chalmers may simply be using the meet as a training exercise and doing what he needs to do with the minimal amount of energy to collect his hardware and continue on in his road to Rio.

The meet continues tomorrow, with Chalmers contesting the 100 freestyle.