2018 VICTORIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, January 12th – Sunday, January 14th
- Melbourne Sports Aquatic Center (MSAC)
- LCM
- Prelims 9am local/Finals 6pm local
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Day 2 Recap
- Live Results
The 2018 Vic Open wrapped up in Melbourne tonight with Olympic medalist Emma McKeon adding a 4th title to her impressive meet performance. After already nabbing golds here in the 50m fly, 100m fly and 100m free, the versatile 23-year-old scored the win in the 200m freestyle, clocking 1:57.54. The Griffith University athlete was the only competitor to dip under the 2-minute threshold of tonight’s field.
World champion Emily Seebohm was also back in the water on tonight’s final session, winning the women’s 200m IM and 50m backstroke events to end on a high note. In the former, the Brisbane Grammar swimmer touched in 2:14.17 to hold off a charging 19-year-old Abbey Harkin. Harkin of St. Peters Western touched less than half a second behind in 2:14.60.
Seebohm’s 50m back victory was even more convincing, as her winning effort of 28.09 checked in as a new Victorian All Comers Record. Her outing replaced the previous All Comers mark of 28.16 held by USA’s Leila Vazin in 28.16.
Olympic medalist Mitch Larkin pulled another double tonight to follow-up his two-gold-garnering swims in the 200m IM and 200m backstroke yesterday. This evening, Larkin took on the 400m IM and 100m backstroke, able to make the top of the podium in 1 of them. The 400m IM saw the St. Peters Western man win in 4:19.78, almost 6 seconds ahead of Olympic finalist Travis Mahoney.
However, in the sprint backstroke race, it was Somerset’s Ben Treffers who was able to maintain the lead to the wall, out-touching Larkin in 54.89 to 54.92 for the gold.
Finally, in the series of duels this weekend between training partners Mack Horton of Australia and Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy, Horton fell just shy of the win tonight in the men’s 1500m event. Having already earned gold on night 1 in the 400m, as well as taking 2nd place over Paltrinieri’s 3rd place in yesterday’s Pier to Pub Open water swim, Horton saw Paltrinieri take tonight’s 1500m in 15:12.96 to the Aussie’s 15:21.33.
It should be noted, however, that both men put the pedal to the metal in the first 800m meters, with Paltrinieri clocking 7:58.27 to Horton’s 7:58.33 before both men backed off for the remainder of the race.
Some Aussie swimmers are heading to Adelaide for the South Australian State Championships starting January 16th, while others will be racing again next weekend at the NSW Championships. All paths lead to the Commonwealth Trials slated to kick-off February 28th.