2023 NEW SOUTH WALES STATE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, March 10th – Sunday, March 12th
- Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center (SOPAC)
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Site
- SwimSwam Preview
- Start List
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Results – Meet Mobile: 2023 NSW State Open Championships
The 2023 New South Wales State Open Championships concluded today from SOPAC but not before Australia’s winningest Olympian of all-time Emma McKeon put up another strong performance.
Taking on the 200m fly this evening for the first time in over two years, 28-year-old McKeon clocked a result of 2:07.79 for gold.
Opening in 1:00.28 and closing in 1:07.51, McKeon topped the podium by nearly 3 seconds, with Brittany Castelluzzo getting to the wall in 2:10.72 while 15-year-old Mikayla Bird rounded out the top 3 in 2:12.20.
McKeon’s 2:07.79 represents the 3rd swiftest time of her career, sitting only behind her previous outings of 2:07.37 and 2:07.49, both from 2017.
The last time McKeon raced in this event was at the Queensland Championships in December of 2020. At that competition, the Griffith star put up performances of 2:10.88 and 2:09.39. Prior to that, McKeon earned the 200m fly bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, producing a result of 2:08.05 on the Gold Coast.
With her outing here, McKeon ranks as the 4th fastest performer in the world this season.
2022-2023 LCM Women 200 Fly
SMITH
2:03.87
| 2 | Summer McIntosh | CAN | 2:04.06 WJR | 07/27 |
| 3 | Elizabeth Dekkers | AUS | 2:05.26 | 06/16 |
| 4 | Lana Pudar | BIH | 2:06.26 | 07/08 |
| 5 | Laura Stephens | GBR | 2:06.62 | 04/06 |
McKeon opted out of her bread-and-butter 200m freestyle race in this evening’s session, but already raced the 50m fly, 100m free, 100m fly and 50m free at this competition.
50 fly – 26.49 silver
100 free – 53.55 silver
100 fly – 57.07 gold
50 free – 24.69 silver
She might have swum the 200BF to test her endurance for the 200FS. I think her days as a 1.54 200 freestyler are over but this suggests she’s well capable of a 1.55 flat start which would make her a probable finals starter in the 4X200FS – assuming she believed she could fit it into what is already a pretty big schedule for her.
I had assumed her 200 free days were behind her but you make a good point. Her split of 1:55.3 in Tokyo was very slow for her standards but still the second fastest on the team. Even a 1:55 flat split would still be enough to make the finals relay. Seems very unlikely we’re getting four sub 1:55s outside of McKeon when we’ve only had 3 ever including McKeon.
If this was her primary event, there’s a chance she could get gold in it in a major meet
She’d potentially make the final of a World level event, nothing more. This is nothing more than a rare outing at a lower tier meet in what is very much an off event. Just wouldn’t make any sense for her to seriously pursue it when she’s already at the pointy end of her key events plus multiple relays.
It was a 2:07.1 for bronze at the last world championships
I agree that it wouldn’t make sense for her to contend it, but I do think that if she did she could do a 2:05, which would be competitive—although I expect summer is going to go a 204 or 203 this summer
Even still, if Emma wanted to take the 200 fly seriously, you could pencil her in for an Olympic bronze at worst. She has a PB of 55.72 in the 100. That’s the kind of speed you need to run with Zhang and Summer.
This is really good, especially considering she hasn’t been great in the freestyles here.
Her times in the other 4 events she swam all suggest she isn’t rested (I wouldn’t necessarily say they were bad though). So getting this close to her PB in the 200 fly is a massive surprise.
We’re about a month here into the issuance of these new Guidelines from Swim AUS, and it was interesting to see the (potential) impact on swim times at NSW. Any coaches care to comment on changes to approaches they have made since the Guidelines issued?
https://www.swimming.org.au/articles/swimming-australia-launches-disordered-eating-prevention-and-management-guidelines
How is this relevant at all? And how would guidelines issued less than a month ago have an appreciable affect on this meet?
I don’t think coaches hang out in the SwimSwam comments to comment on stuff like this lol.
Relevant because McKeon swims at 5’11” and 115 lbs?
The meet had a World Record, seven world leading times and about 20 top 5 in the world times. So the effect appears to have been minimal or possibly positive.
Not great? Didn’t she swim the 4th fastest 100 free for the season?
World leading times don’t count for much right now and she was off her PB by quite a bit. So yes, not great, but a 2:07 2 fly at the same meet as a 54 shows that she could be way faster in both events in top form.
She was a 53.5, not a 54