Horton Heads To Changed-Up 2021 Victorian Open

2021 VICTORIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, February 20th & Sunday, February 21st
• Melbourne Sports Centres Outdoor Pool (MSAC), Queensland, Australia
• Timed Finals
• LCM (50m)
• Entry Lists

The 2021 Victorian Open Championships meet is still on schedule for this weekend, although changes have been implemented in light of the coronavirus climate within the nation of Australia.

The competition was originally set to begin on Thursday, February 18th, but will instead be held over just two days, beginning on Saturday, February 20th. Additionally, the events will be raced as timed finals, with prelims now eliminated.

No fans will be in the stands save one parent/guardian spectator per swimmer in an effort to contain capacity at MSAC.

Although this is a non-selection event, the Vic Open presents a high-caliber opportunity to get some racing in, with the likes of Mack Horton, Lani Pallister and Cameron McEvoy all set to compete.

As for Horton, the 24-year-old Olympic champion will be racing in his first meet of 2021, entered in the entirety of the men’s freestyle events spanning 50m/100m/200m/400/800m/1500m distances. Now that these are timed finals over just two days, however, we’d expect Horton to possibly shrink this agenda down a tad.

Horton last raced in December at the Queensland Championships where he had a lukewarm set of performances. He placed 10th in the men’s 200m free with a time of 1:51.83. In the 400m free, the Melbourne Vicentre athlete posted a morning time of 3:57.12 to rank 10th after prelims but wound up opting out of the final race.

Key Entrants per Club:

• Cotton Tree – Lani Pallister
• Firbank – Samuel Williamson
• Griffith – Georgia Bohl, Taylor McKeown
• Hunter – Meg Baily
• Melbourne Vicentre – Daniel Cave, Jack Gerrard, Mack Horton
• Nunawading – Sophie Caldwell, Gabriella Peiniger, Brendon Smith
• TSS Aquatic – Cameron McEvoy