Not To Be Ignored, Mitch Larkin Snares 4 Individual Titles At Aussie Nats

2019 AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, April 7th – Friday, April 12th
• SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre
• LCM
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Entry Lists
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4/Day 5/Day 6
• Live Results
• Live Stream

As a reminder this meet is NOT a World Championships qualifying affair. The Australian World Championships Trials take place in June.

With the attention Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers brought to the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre pool with his 4 national titles, it was a little easy to overlook another gentleman who snared 4 national titles of his own.

Olympic silver medalist Mitch Larkin put together one heck of a meet, capturing the 100m back/200m back double gold and 200m IM/400m IM double gold here in South Australia. All told, the 25-year-old St. Peters Western swimmer holds 18 national titles, with more to look forward to at the World Championships Trials this June.

Title #1 – 100m Back

At these Nationals, Larkin first produced a 100m back victory in night 1 in a time of 53.51. He held off a charging William Yang in the race, who wound up touching just .08 behind in 53.59.

Larkin now ranks as the 7th fastest swimmer in the world this season, while Yang is now 9th.

Title #2 – 200m IM

On night 3, the 2015 double world champion clocked a winning time of 1:56.83 to give Larkin his 2nd 2019 national title. Larkin took his 2nd 200m IM national title 8 years after his first, shining a light on the fact the St. Peters Western swimmer has started taking this event more and more seriously over the past few years.

His big-time 1:56.83 here represented his second fastest time ever and also the second time Larkin has been under the 1:57 mark.

Larkin’s personal best in this event is represented by the Australian and Commonwealth Record of 1:56.21 he notched for silver behind America’s Chase Kalisz at last year’s Pan Pacific Championships.

Larkin’s outing checks the him in as the 4th fastest swimmer in the world this season.

Title #3 – 400m IM

Day 4 brought Larkin’s 3rd title of the meet, with the man clocking 4:15.68 to clinch the 400m IM win, albeit in a super close battle to the wall.

The Olympic medalist had to fight to the end, as 18-year-old Nunawading athlete Brendon Smith swam the race of his life to try to chase down Larkin. Smith ultimately touched in 4:14.91, a monster new personal best by over 4 seconds.

Larkin and Smith entered the final 100m with the former in the lead, but Smith slowly gained on the 2015 double World Champion, out splitting him on the final 100m 57.49 to Larkin’s 59.19, but the teen simply ran out of real estate to hit the wall first

Larkin now ranks 6th in the world.

Title #4 – 200m Back

Larkin’s 4th title came in tonight’s 200m back where he busted out the gold in 1:56.22. Larkin led the charge of 2 other sub-2:00 swimmers in Tristan Hollard and Cameron Tysoe, who finished with the silver and bronze in times of 1:57.17 and 1:59.10, respectively.

Larkin’s time tonight, after a long meet of intense racing, places the swimmer right in the mix among the world’s best swimmers at 7th in the world rankings this season.

Overall in his career, Larkin’s gold tonight represents his 18th national title.