Cate Campbell Scratches 200 Free Final At Aussie C’ships

2017 AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, April 9th – Thursday, April 13th
• Brisbane Aquatic Centre
• Prelims at 11am local/Finals at 7:30pm local
• LCM
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• Live Streaming (differs per session) – Day 3 Finals (through B Finals only)
• Live Results

After having sneaked into the women’s 200m freestyle final during day 3 prelims of the Aussie Swimming Championships, Cate Campbell has wound up scratching out of the event. She earned the 8th fastest time of the morning, clocking a mark of 2:00.01 to claim lane 8, but decided not to swim the race, bumping 5k open water national champion Kiah Melverton now into the final. After posting the world’s fastest 100m freestyle time of 52.78 on day 1, C1 settled for bronze in that race in a time of 53.30. She will also be contesting the 50m freestyle.

24-year-old C1 has made it known she is not seeking a World Championships roster spot, saying she is only swimming here in Brisbane ‘for fun.’ After a mentally grueling Rio Olympics where the heavily favored Campbell fell short of medaling in either of her individual freestyle events, the star has decided to take a step back from Worlds and instead focus on 2018 Commonwealth Games.

For swim nerds, the scratch is disappointing if only to see what an ‘unpressured’ C1 could turn out in the 200m freestyle, an off-event for the thoroughbred. The Commercial Club athlete already notched a new personal best in this 200m distance in 1:58.21 earlier this year and looked easy-speed-ish in this morning’s race.

WOMEN’S 200 FREESTYLE – PRELIM

• Swimming Australia QT –1:56.95
• Top 8:
  1. Emma McKeon – 1:57.99
  2. Mikkayla Sheridan – 1:59.01
  3. Kotuku Ngawati – 1:59.06
  4. Madi Wilson – 1:59.09
  5. Leah Neale – 1:59.24.
  6. Brianna Throssell – 1:59.33
  7. Ariarne Titmus – 1:59.40
  8. Cate Campbell – 2:00.01;Kiah Melverton – 2:00.08