2019 AUSTRALIAN WORLD SWIMMING TRIALS
- Sunday, June 9th – Friday, June 14th
- Brisbane Aquatic Centre
- LCM
- Meet Site
- Swimming Australia 2019 World Championships – Selection Policy
- Start List
- Prelims Heat Sheets
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
- Live Results
- Live Stream
The Aussies showed their mettle on night 1 of the nation’s World Trials, racing their way to 6 World Championships qualification times and 1 new Australian National Record.
18-year-old St. Peters Western star Ariarne Titmus keeps raising her own bar, establishing a new National and Commonwealth Record in the women’s 400m free with a time of 3:59.35.
Post-race, the Dean Boxall-trained Tasmanian stated, “We were pretty fired up for this race and I have been swimming really quick and I wanted to try and put together a really great swim.
“To be honest I am a bit disappointed with the time. I have been training really well and I thought I might have a 3:58 in me. I definitely felt the sting a little bit the last 100 metres and I know I went out heard so that is probably why.” Titmus went out in super quick 1:57.67, a time only a second off of the individual 200m free QT for Worlds. She opened in 1:57.91 at the 2018 Pan Pacs.
“With a bit more of a rest leading into a meet hopefully that will help me.”
17-year-old London Roar signee Kaylee McKeown produced a powerful swim of her own, dipping under both the 2:11 and 2:10 thresholds for the first time in her young career in the women’s 200m IM.
Crysung a 2:09.94 PB to qualify in the event for Worlds, McKeown said post-race, “So much effort has gone behind this swim and to come out with a personal best tonight is awesome.
“I was focusing on skills, not necessarily the speed and I think I have done that tonight.
“This obviously takes the pressure off for the rest of the week, so I am super stoked with that.”
Finally for the men, Jack McLoughlin beat out Olympic champion Mack Horton in the men’s edition of the 400m free, representing the only racer of the final to dip under the QT for Worlds.
McLoughlin stated tonight, “It is very, very tough only to have 2 spots, so getting the win there gives me a lot of confidence.
“It was going to be a dog fight, so I’m just really stoked to get the win.”
Quotes courtesy of Swimming Australia.
I agree. If you are not number one in the world, you’re last!
It will be interesting to see her 200 free and if she breaks 1:54. I think she can be well under it.
1:53 ANYTHING is going to be tough
Of course it will be but she is young & tough.
If I had to guess, Shayna will take her outto a set time to x point & hang in herself for 2nd place . I think it will haveto be 56.00 for a sub 1.54.
It is possible that she might just be able to drop insane times not fully rested like Ledecky as well… she is the clear world #2 and it’s awesome to see that she can consistently get under 4:00, a feat that would be ridiculous if Ledecky didn’t make it a requirement to even think of competing with her. I don’t think she has a 3:56 in her yet but Ledecky is going to have to bring her A game now. It’s so nice to finally see a potential rival to Ledecky. We are really seeing a revolution in some events right now, Peaty destroying what we thought was possible in breaststroke and now the 59 barrier seems to be what… Read more »
Ledecky is not great, she is the greatest IMO (yes Janet Evans), but her 3.56 is just like WOW. Now Australia gets a once in generation swimmer who is in the 3.59 & 3.58 range & is challenging Ledecky as Ledecky is not at that 3.56 anymore (or just yet). Just goes to show how great(est) Ledecky was & still is. But we have a challenger.
With all these talks about fast initial 200 I’m surprised how inconsistent is this approach in Katie Ledecky’s case. And that is the only case we have to measure Titmus’ races against.
The following is how Ledecky swam the first half of 400 event in her best races.
3:56.46 – 1:57.11
3:57.84 – 1:57.70
3:58.37 – 1:58.30
3:58.44 – 1:57.57
3:58.50 – 1:57.01
3:58.71 – 1:58.94
3:58.86 – 1:57.72
3:58.98 – 1:56.28
3:59.09 – 1:56.94
So many interpretations of the strategy in this looking straight forward event. Titmus hasn’t shown yet that flexibility and what she is doing now has limited prospects. But she may happen to be so… Read more »
Laure Manaudou started the trend of going out fast. Evans’ world record was negative-split, so people would try to do the same. Then Laure came along, and she trained to take her 400s out in 1:58 back when that’s what it took to make US teams in the 200. And she broke Evans’ vaunted world record, and the floodgates opened,
‘Started the current trend would be more accurate. There were several decades of world record holders before Evans set one.
Correct. The point is that before Laure did it, people would try to even or negative split the 400 because that’s what Evans did to break the world record, and no one else came close to it for decades. It was believed to be the fastest way to swim events from 400 up. Then Laure Manaudou came along and turned the 400 into the long sprint we see today. She took the record from a 4:03.85 to a 4:03.03, and finally to a 4:02.13 back when the rest of the world was lucky to go 4:05, and when she did it in 2006, she took it out in 1:59.1 and everyone else was 3 seconds back by the 200.
She is a challenger who has nothing to lose. So saying publicly about her outstanding personal best as a disappointment is a playing PR games with the media:”Watch out. Next race it will be 3:58. If you want to beat me then go 3:57. It may help you”
It is very hard to make any prognosis about Ariarne Titmus having only three of her races for the last 11 months when each next of them shows the improvement. The only thing that is more or less clear that emphasis is made on improvement of the first part of the race
1:58.31 (3:59.66, Aug 2018) – 1:57.91(3:59.66, Apr, 2019) – 1:57.67 (3.59.35, Jun 2019)
Well this approach shows… Read more »
I think it’s great. After so many years of dominating, it’s good to see Ledecky get some real competition in the 400.
Her coach – “Why would you go that fast?”
Ariarne – “Well she started it!”
Very childish…
Surely your overthinking it. She went out and blasted one of the best 400m of all time.
Whatever she did was obviously right.
#15 to be exact. She still hasn’t put Pellegrini’s world record behind. Ledecky did it from the second attempt at the age of 17. But this result definitely makes her one of the strongest swimmer ever in this event.
The question isn’t if what she is doing is right or wrong. The question is how low can she go swimming 400 this way.
Sure, I’m over thinking it. Let it be as it will be. We have no way to affect it. But what else can we do at this cloudy and very humid in my place Sunday morning.
We know that Ariarna likes to talk this way. Or she may been advised to behave in this manner to raise the public interest and agitation around her. But this talk about disappointment is a bragging about exceptional achievement, I hope. Because if it isn’t then this is actually not a good sign when you think you can do more than your body has done. After that your mind begins to do some tricky things demanding your body of doing something that it… Read more »
Oh jeez. Worlds will be fun.
Of course she’s disappointed. She went into Aus Trials #1 in world in her pet event and emerged as #2 at the other end.