Heading into the 2013 EnergyAustralia Swimming Championships the overwhelming sentiment was that the swimmers wanted to put last year behind them and show the world that Swimming Australia had turned the page on the controversy that has plagued them since London.
Olympic star Alicia Coutts told the Australian, “”Obviously, there have been negative things after London and I think it’s a good chance to let our swimming speak for us.”
On the first night of competition in Adelaide Bronte Barratt did just that winning the 400 freestyle in a time of 4:03.52. Barratt’s time now puts her on top of the world rankings, surpassing Camille Muffat’s time of 4:04.16, which she swam earlier this month.
Her time was just over Kylie Palmer’s Australian record of 4:03.50.
Barratt led the race from the start turning at the 200 meter mark in a time of 2:00.77 almost a second and a half ahead of Palmer.
Palmer finished second in a time of 4:06.00 followed by Katie Goldman who finished third recording a time of 4:07.39.
Christian Sprenger who had an impressive swim in the prelims, breaking the meet record and coming only one one-hundredth of a second away from his world best in the 100 breaststroke, had an even better swim in the semi-final this evening.
Sprenger qualified for top spot in the final posting a new meet record time of 59.05, which is seven tenths of a second faster than his season’s best and world best 59.75.
Brenton Rickard qualified second in a time of 1:00.87 followed by Kenneth To who finished in a time of 1:01.58.
In the 400 freestyle London Olympian David McKeon made a statement winning the event in a time of 3:43.71. McKeon’s time is the second fastest in the world this year next to Sun Yang’s 3:42.93 and makes him the third fastest Australian man to swim the event behind only Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett.
Top Australian Men in the 400 freestyle All Time:
Ian Thorpe – 3:40.08
Grant Hackett – 3:42.51
David McKeon – 3:43.71
Kieren Perkins – 3:43.80
McKeon was in control of the race from start to finish, leading Ryan Napolean at the 200 (1:50.93) mark by almost a full second.
17 year old Jordan Harrison battled back from trailing Napolean up until the 350 meter mark. Harrison split a 27.48 in the last 50 (the fastest last 50 in the field) compared to Napolean’s 28.06 and took second in the event posting a time of 3:45.85 with Napolean finishing third in a time of 3:46.26.
All three men were under the winning time from last year’s championship of 3:46.36 where McKeon won as well.
In the women’s 200 IM Emily Seebhom qualified first for the finals tomorrow night swimming a time of 2:11.66.
Alicia Coutts will be heading into tomorrow night’s final in second recording a time of 2:13.37 with Hayley Baker qualifying third in a time of 2:13.78.
Matt Targett touched first in the 50 fly in a time of 23.22. Targett broke Christopher Wright’s record of 23.79 set last year. Wright qualified second in a time of 23.84 followed by Benjamin Treffers who posted a 23.89.
In the women’s 100 butterfly Alicia Coutts qualified for the top spot in the final posting a time of 57.92, which ranks second in the world this year with only Sarah Sjostrom’s 57.66 ahead of her. She was followed closely by Ellen Gandy who finished in a time of 57.99 while Yolane Kukla qualified third in a time of 58.83.
In the women’s multi-class 100 backstroke Taylor Corry (S14) won the event in a time of 1:10.37. Ellie Cole (S9) finished second in a time of 1:14.17 with 14 year old Maddison Elliott (S8) taking third in a time of 1:19.84.
In the men’s multi-class 100 backstroke Grant Patterson (S3) won the event in a time of 2:00.72. Michael Anderson (S10) finished second followed by Daniel Fox (S14) who finished third in a time of 1:04.82.
Full results can be found here.
Swim Australia has also put up a video introducing the world to their swimmers which you can see here.
Wow mckeons 343 is probably the second most shocking swim this year for me, after pedersens 200 breaststroke. In a depleted 400 field that goes without park, biedermann, PVK and agnel(correct if im wrong but these are the only guys to have gone under345 in the last two years other than sun. He is an extremely strong medal contender if he holds form
3:46.36 is not meet record in 400m free, i believe Thorpe and Hackett had been faster. That’s winning time from last year. In the live result, it tags as “title holder” not “meet record”.
As far as I read (maybe edited after you posted) I did not see it being referred to as the meet record, just Sprenger in the 100 breaststroke. Yeah, 3:46:36 was the 400m winning time from last year. All top 3 this year went under that. Ian Thorpe went 3:40:54 in the 2002 Australian Championships.
In the live results, McKeon’s last year winning time was stated as meet record.
Which is ridic at best
Fortunately for swimming, Australia is a country with no more than 23 million people. If they were 300 million, Australia would have two Thorpes and Hacketts by each generation and would win no less than 25 of Olympics events. That would be boring for the sport. Australia the best swimming country by far.
With the if…
The best swimming country is the country that wins the biggest number of medals and especially gold medals. And last year in London it was USA with 16 gold medals ahead of China with 5 gold medals. Australia had only 1 gold medal. But I agree, with their little population, Australia has great results in the pool and more generally in sport.
4.03.52 or Bronte Barratt in the 400 free; She’s again a strong candidate for the podium in Barcelona.
3.43.71 for David McKeon! Very talented 20-year-old swimmer.
59.05 for Christian Sprenger in the 100 breast semi-finals!!!! We’ll see the state of Australian men’s backstroke later but if they can have a guy around 53 low or better, they become very dangerous for USA in the medley relay.
I believe Harrison finished 2nd last year in the 1500 m freestyle in the Pan Pacific youth swimming games; I think his time was 15min 17 s or so. First in that race was Mack Horton in 15min 10s (15 y old at that time). I’m really looking forward to the 1500 m.
I just looked up Horton; he is 17 and has a PB of 15:04 (and he said w/o being tapered), not bad at all. He wants to go under 15:00.
He has to go under 15min if he wants to represent AUS
Turned 17 less than three weeks ago in fact, was 16 for the age nationals at the start of april
Never heard of Harrison; 17 years old and a high 3:45, very impressive. McKeon can definitely be in the hunt for a medal come this summer. hopefully these young guys can carry on the Aussie tradition in the long distance events.
and McKeon has some good sporting lineage – his father was a swimmer who competed at the 1980 & 1984 Olympics, and his mother was also a high-level swimmer.
And his sister Emma is a very young talented sprinter too.
Can we get the video of Thomas Fraser-Holmes overbalanced and fell off the blocks a la Ian Thorpe in 2004?
Seems like Australia’s men mid-distance is finally getting back to health.
McKeon will be interesting to watch in the next three years, as he didn’t start training seriously until few years ago.