Chalmers Clocks Near-Personal Best 200 Fly Down Under

2020 SOUTH AUSTRALIA STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, January 18 – Thursday, January 23rd
• SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre, Oaklands Park
• LCM
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap
• Live Results

The first day of the 2020 South Australia State Championships saw the state’s biggest stars racing in a relay capacity, whereby day 2 here at the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre presented us with the meet’s first individual events.

Fans were treated to a rare, but not unheard of 200m fly appearance by sprint ace Kyle Chalmers. The 21-year-old Olympic champion in the 100m free from Rio led the men’s 2fly tonight from start-to-finish, splitting 57.13/1:03.43 to punch a time of 2:00.56. That mark was just outside the 2:00.37 he produced in the morning to claim the top seed.

Chalmers’ 200m fly personal best rests at the 1:59.52 he posted in February 2019. As such, his efforts this evening from these South Aussie States now represent the 2nd and 3rd fastest times of his career.

We already reported on the monster 58.52 100m back put up by 18-year-old Kaylee McKeown, but the World Championships silver medalist got her hand on the wall first here in another event.

McKeown took on the 200m IM, where the teen nailed the women’s 17-18 meet title in a time of 2:12.15. Splitting 28.55/34.16/38.46/30.98, McKeown’s effort this evening was well off her PB of 2:09.94 from the 2019 Aussie World Trials, but still got her the gold by over 10 seconds.

Additional Notes:

• Olympian Travis Mahoney got it done for 100m back gold in a time of 56.55, with the 29-year-old representing the only swimmer of the field to dip under 1:00.
• The open women’s 100m back saw Madi Wilson touch first in 1:00.49.
• Sophie Healy‘s time of 2:20.42 got her the win in the women’s aged 15 200m IM, with the teen topping that age category’s podium by over 9 seconds. She’s been as fast as 2:18.52 as a 14-year-old.
• The men’s 50m breast saw Jack Packard strike gold in 27.82, while Tianni Gilmour produced 33.68 for the women’s open gold.
• Matthew Pearce, 15, won his age group’s 50m breast in 31.10, registering a new personal best by almost a second.