Gough Nears 800 Free Lifetime Best On The Gold Coast

2020 Swimming Gold Coast Welcome Back Meet

• Saturday, September 5th – Sunday, September 6th
• Gold Coast Aquatic Centre
• SCM (25m)
• Results: Meet Mobile

Gold Coast swimmers were back in action on day 1 of the Welcome Back Meet, a two-day affair of short course racing.

17-year-old multi-national age record holder Thomas Hauck of All Saints took on multiple events, winding up on top of the 200m free, 200m back, 400m IM, and 800m free.

Last week in the 200m back Hauck nailed a new age record of 1:54.11 but saw that bite the dust last night by way of Joshua Edwards-Smiths 1:52.29 at the Western Aussie Championships taking place this weekend as well.

Tonight, Hauck was less fiery, touching in 1:57.36 to get the job done, following that 2back victory up with a 4oom IM victory in 4:13.46 and 800m free in 7:52.09. His 200m free time of 1:47.57 was also good enough for gold, edging out 26-year-old veteran David Morgan and his mark of 1:49.42.

Another recent record-breaker was also in the water in the form of Maddy Gough. Just 6 days ago, Gough put up the fastest 1500m freestyle (SCM) ever for an Australian, having clocked a time of 15:38.01 at the Queensland Prep meet earlier this month.

Tonight, the 21-year-old Queenslander posted a time of 8:15.88 to easily top the 800m free field. Her time was within striking distance of her own lifetime best of 8:15.24, a time she registered at the 2018 Aussie Short Course National Championships. That time rendered her as the 7th fastest Aussie performer ever.

Kiah Melverton of TSS Aquatic was a double gold medalist here on day 1, edging out the 200m free field in 1:58.72. That topped Gough’s 2:00.74 and bronze medalist Laura Taylor‘s 2:01.88.

Next in the 400m IM, Melverton got the wall first easily in a time of 4:44.88 to stand on the podium once again.

Additional Winners:

• Cooper van der Laan touched in 1:00.24 to top the men’s 16+ 100m breaststroke filed.
• The 14-year-old age bracket for the men’s 100m breast saw Gideon Burnes strike a time of 1:05.24, sitting just outside the top 10 performers all-time in this age.
• Chelsea Hodges produced a winning 100m breast time of 1:06.69 to give the 19-year-old the top prize.
• 1:57.19 is what David Morgan produced in the men’s 200m fly as the only swimmer under 2:04.
• The women’s 200m fly saw TSS Aquatic simmer Alice Stuart beat out teammate and Commonwealth Games medalist Laura Taylor. the former touched in 2:09.23 to the latter’s 2:14.25.