2023 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN STATE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, January 20th – Sunday, January 22nd
- SA Aquatic & Leisure Center
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Results – Meet Mobile: 2023 SA State Open & MC Championships
The 2023 South Australia State Open Championships began today from down under with the likes of Olympians Kyle Chalmers and Meg Harris in the SA Aquatic & Leisure Center pool.
Chalmers took on two events on the day, beginning with Marion’s men’s 4x50m medley relay. Collectively clocking a time of 1:36.13, the squad topped the podium, with Chalmers producing an anchor leg of 22.00.
The 24-year-old then raced the individual men’s 50m free, posting a time of 22.54 to wind up at the wall first. The time sneaks Chalmers in among the top 25 performers on the season worldwide, with the South Aussie still looking forward to the 50m/100m fly, 100m free and 800m free events at this competition.
For her part, Harris also took on Marion’s medley relay for the women, logging a fly leg of 27.29 to help the team produce a winning time of 1:58.53.
Harris also served as the anchor on Marion’s women’s 4x100m free relay, sealing up gold with a final leg of 54.39.
Although Harris bowed out of the individual 50m back, the 20-year-old did race the 50m free. She posted a time of 25.20 to grab gold, with her teammate Madi Wilson no-showing the event.
The women’s 200m breast saw Jenna Strauch dominate the field, posting a time of 2:25.11 for the top prize. Splitting 1:10.02/1:15.09, Miami’s Strauch logged the only sub-2:33 time of the final, sliding into the season’s world rankings in slot #3 for her effort.
2022-2023 LCM Women 200 Breast
Chikunova
2:17.55 WR
| 2 | Tatjana Schoenmaker | RSA | 2:20.80 | 07/28 |
| 3 | Lilly King | USA | 2:20.95 | 06/28 |
| 4 | Kate Douglass | USA | 2:21.22 | 06/28 |
| 5 | Tes Schouten | NED | 2:21.63 | 07/28 |
Another swimmer making a mark on the season’s world rankings was 19-year-old Sam Short. Competing in the men’s 400m free, Short of Rackley put up a season-best result of 3:47.86 to handily win the event.
Short owns a lifetime best of 3:44.34 in this 4free, a result he registered at the 2022 Australian National Championships.
2022-2023 LCM Men 400 Free
Short
3:40.68
| 2 | Ahmed Hafnaoui | TUN | 3:40.70 | 07/23 |
| 3 | Lukas Martens | GER | 3:42.20 | 07/23 |
| 4 | Elijah Winnington | AUS | 3:43.48 | 06/13 |
| 5 | Guilherme Costa | BRA | 3:43.58 | 07/23 |
Additional Winners
- Rackley’s Bronte Job topped the women’s 50m back podium in 27.97, although she was slightly quicker in the morning with a time of 27.83.
- New South Wales athlete Bradley Woodward got to the wall first in the men’s edition of the 50m back, logging 25.70 to win by over 2 seconds.
- The men’s 100m breast saw James McKechnie post 1:03.30 for the top prize.
- Brittany Castelluzzo was the women’s 200m fly winner in 2:17.06 while Olympian Matt Temple topped the men’s version in 2:00.44.
- Miami’s Georgie Roper grabbed gold in the women’s 400m free in a time of 4:15.31, the 3rd best time of the 17-year-old’s young career.
I just noticed Australia is back to using stricter QTs than the FINA ones.
https://swimmingausprd.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023-FINA-World-Championships-Selection-Criteria.pdf
Chalmers also swam a 48.6 in the free relay Retta – he was on the B team for some reason.
Could be trying to balance teams for points, or could have just been given a different group of swimmers a chance to swim with him, or could have just preferred the lane allocation.
Yeah I did think same
Thanks!
Short and Winnington went 3:46.6 and 3:45 at the Queensland champs. Those rankings need updating.
A good in season time from Strauch. Given the QT for Worlds is 2.23.91, it would not surprise to see her nudge that time at her next major outing (NSW Open in March and/or Nationals in April).
Decent 50back times from Job, however to date, she has shown little signs of being competitive beyond that range.
Good in season 400free from Short who has to be seen as part of the selection picture for that event although I feel Winnington has one place locked and Neill’s 200 speed may be telling given Short lacks a major “change up”. His path to selection is most likely via 1500 and maybe 800 where he will need to drop just under a second… Read more »
Short hasn’t put it together yet in the 800 but you’d have to think he can make the 800 QT if he can make the 400 and 1500 QTs.