On the second morning of Australian Nationals, more of the stars from Down Under are beginning to come out. David McKeon and Christian Sprenger were again dominant, but they were joined atop the preliminary results by some other big names like Cate Campbell, Thomas Fraser-Holmes and Emily Seebohm on day 2.
After nabbing the first spot on the Commonwealth Games squad last night, 400 free champ David McKeon got after things again this morning, going 1:46.93 to take the top seed in the 200 free. He’ll have to tangle with Cameron McEvoy in the final, though. McEvoy went 1:47.20 – he was the top seed coming out of prelims of the 50 fly yesterday but scratched the event at semifinals.
McKeon’s prelims time checks in at 5th in the world this year, but McEvoy’s season-best is one spot ahead after McEvoy went 1:46.68 in February. Behind those two are a whole host of guys in the 1:47s – Kurt Herzog (1:47.48) and Thomas Fraser-Holmes (1:47.63) are the top two of that crew.
Cate Campbell put up a quick 24.23 in taking the top seed in the women’s 50 free. That’s just .02 off her world-leading time from earlier this year. Her younger sister Bronte is the second seed, seven tenths back at 25.01. Melanie Schlanger and Emma McKeon sit three and four with 25.2s.
200 breast champ from last night Christian Sprenger leads the 100 breast field. Sprenger was an easy 1:01.31 in the event where he won gold at the 2013 World Championships. He’s almost a full second up on second-seed Jake Packard heading into semifinals tonight.
In the women’s 100 back, it’s Emily Seebohm who leads the field, going 59.86. She’s followed closely by Belinda Hocking, the only other prelims swimmer to crack a minute at 59.92. For Seebohm, that puts her just off her world-leading 2014 time, and Hocking moves into 3rd place on the rankings, bumping Katinka Hosszu out of that slot.
Thomas Fraser-Holmes came off that 200 free to pace the 400 IM easily. The 22-year-old from Miami Swim Club went 4:19.89 and leads by over three seconds heading into the final. Nunawading’s Travis Mahoney is second at 4:23.20, just a half-second up on Jared Gilliland of Nudgee Brothers.
In the Paralympic category, five events were swum. 19-year-old Taylor Corry took the top seed in the women’s Multi-class 100 free at 1:02.79, still about a second off what she went in winning the event a year ago. Daniel Fox is the men’s top seed, going 54.01 to take a few tenths off his 2013 championship effort.
The women’s Para-sport 100 free saw Maddison Elliott pick up the top seed in 1:06.31 just one day after setting a world record in the 50 free. The 15-year-old Elliott leads that field heading into finals.
Waterworx 22-year-old Kayla Clarke is the top seed in the women’s 200 IM, going 2:32.22, a full four seconds faster than her 2013 championship time. Corry was second in that race at 2:39.83.
Matthew Levy leads the men’s 200 IM, going 2:40.67 for the highest-scored race of prelims. Meanwhile 24-year-old Grant Patterson took the top seed in the men’s 150 IM, going 3:15.64.
I’m a big Cam McEvoy fan. FYI, not only is he an exceptional swimmer, he’s also studying theoretical physics and he’s damm good at it! He’s kinda a “Sheldon” that communicate and go a 1:45!!
And Kyle Chalmers!! Wow and wow again!! Holy cow! He came 2nd in the 50 ‘fly at 24.0!! Crazy stuff! I think we’ll see a 15 year old under 53.5 for the 100 ‘fly and 49-low for a 100 free! Wow…
Wow I did not know that. That is impressive. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite swimmers
Minna Atherton broke her own 13 yr old 100 back record by around half a second.
Massive speculation but if Chalmers improves his 50 free pb by as much as his fly would be a 21 high! More realistic is 22 mid but one can dream. Think he could do something special in the 100 free based on his relay splits with a strong back half.
It really tells a lot on how good Thorpe was in the 200 free that, as good as Mc Evoy’s times on that distance are, they are nowhere near Thorpe’s times at the same age.
Thorpe was a unique phenom in his time ! His freestyle stroke was simply amazing to watch ; so smooth and efficient . I would watch him for hours ….
Kyle Chalmers is blasting one PB after another, in the tradition of Michael Andrew. I hope he can hold it together and be the first 15 yo to go 49.
Is thorpe the record holder still?
Yes, Thorpe’s 50.21 is still the Australian record, and AFAIK, is the still the fastest time ever by 15 yo. At 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth games, still at 15 he also split 49 low in the free relay.
I don’t really get how you’re doing it, I didn’t factor in time? I’ll show you my methodology though. I think doing it like this accounts for shorter times.
100 free
47.84/48.18 = 0.992943 then multiplied the current textile record by this factor
47.1*0.992943 = ~46.77
Men’s 400 free
220.08/223.8 = 0.983378*220.08
= 3:36.4
Women’s 400 free (I’m not positive but I think the textile record before Ledecky got it was by Muffat who had succeeded Manadou)
=241.13/242.13 = 0.99587*241.13
=04:00.1
Does this make sense? not trying to start an argument or anything I just thought it was an interesting comparison.
Cate Campbell does not swim to know how to slow down, swimming 24.2 in the prelims and 24.1 in the semis.
I am hoping to see her get back sub 24 again.
Magnussen is not the new PVDH, mcEvoy is. His 100/200 times are already almost the same as PVDH’s Sydney 2000 times.
I’d add Danila Izotov, Nikita Lobintsev & Sebastian Verschuren to that list. All three similar to Hoogie when they’re in shape, great speed.
I think to be the next PVDH someone will have to go 46.9 in the 100 and 1:43 or at least 1:44 in the 200, when you consider how much faster the fields and records are now.
why 46.9? It’s rubber suit.
In textile, at the age of 19 yo, McEvoy is faster in both 100/200 free than all of them (izotov, lobintsev, verschuren and even PVDH) were at the same age.
PVDH reached his peak and his PBs when he was 22-23, and I don’t think mcEvoy has stopped swimming.
Mind you, I’m not saying that mcEvoy will be as great as PVDH (I don’t think any 100/200 swimmer will match his greatness for a foreseeable future), I was just responding to an earlier assertion by someone here who believe that Magnussen could be the next PVDH and IMHO mcEvoy is better positioned to be the “next” PVDH.
I think what Kylecw meant to say is that VDH swam 47.8 and 1.45 in an age where underwater, dives, turns and so on were different, so to equal him today you would have to go 46.9 in the 100 and 1.44 in the 200. And I agree. When VDH swam 47.8, everyone else was swimming 48s …
Thanks Luigi,
That’s exactly what I meant. The textile mark is 47.1 which is comparable to the ~48.2 that it was when he went 47.84. It would be crazy to think how fast the times would be of someone who lowered the records proportionally as much as he did in Sydney. By my calculations that person would have to go a 46.77 and a 1:42.98 (calculated with current textile records). I’m thinking Agnel is most likely to do those times.
PVDH will remain a legend because of how good he was relative to his competitors, not necessarily because people won’t be able to equal his times.
Your calculation is incorrect because you did not take into account that the shorter the time is then the larger the percentage drop is.
Using your standard, Sun Yang has to swim 3:34 to match Thorpe’s 3:40 as it only took Thorpe 7 years to lower the previous record by almost 4 seconds and now 12 years have passed since Thorpe’s last record.
That’s crazy.
Using your standard also, Ledecky has to swim at least 3:55 to match Evans 4:03 from 1988.
You’re not being proportional in your calculation.
You forgot :
1. The shorter/faster the time is, the bigger percentage it scores even if it drops the same amount of seconds.
2. The… Read more »
That was me who said that Magnussen could be the new PVDH. However, as you say, Mccevoy might be a better fit. We haven’t yet seen Magnussen go full out in the 200 however. And depending on if Agnel goes 100-200 or 200-400, it could very well be him as well.