Joshua Edwards-Smith Rocks 1:55.42 LCM 200 Back, Now #2 Aussie All-Time

2022 QUEENSLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, December 10th – Friday, December 16th
• Brisbane Aquatic Centre, Queensland, Australia
• LCM (50m)
• Entries
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
• Live Results
• Livestream ($)

The rockstar race on day four of these 2022 Queensland Championships came in the men’s 200m backstroke where 19-year-old Joshua Edwards-Smith put up the swim of his life.

The Griffith University swimmer punched a massive 1:55.42 to knock over a second off of his previous career-quickest en route to gold. That performance beat the field by nearly 5 solid seconds, with the next-closest competitor represented by New Zealand’s Kane Follows.

Follows touched in a time of 2:00.35 while another Aussie Thomas Hauck rounded out the top 3 performers in 2:00.55 for bronze.

As for Edwards-Smith, the teen opened in 56.06 and closed in 59.36 to obliterate his previous PB of 1:56.71. That former time was just logged this year in May at the Australian Nationals.

Edward-Smith went on to perform beneath that potential, however, both at the World Championships in Budapest as well as the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this summer.

In the former, Edwards-Smith settled for 11th place with a semi-final time of 1:57.52, while he clocked 1:57.60 for 6th place in the latter competition. Had the Aussie produced this type of 1:55.42 performance in Budapest he would have placed 4th while he would have claimed gold ahead of champion Brodie Williams‘ (GBR) 1:56.40 in Birmingham.

With his monster outing here in Queensland, Edwards-Smith now rockets up the list of all-time Aussie performers from slot #7 to now #2. Only national record holder Mitch Larkin has been faster, owning the Aussie standard in 1:53.17 from 2015.

On the all-time performers’ list worldwide, Edwards-Smith sneaks into the top 20 at spot #19.

He now takes over the top spot in the season’s rankings worldwide.

Additional Winners

• Shayna Jack topped the women’s 50m free podium, touching in 24.48 in the only sub-25 second time of the open field. American Linnea Mack was next in 25.68, while Singapore’s Quah Ting Wen was next in 25.70.
• The girls’ 16-year-old race saw Bond’s phenom Milla Jansen log a super swift time of 25.50 to get a .14 edge over Hannah Casey‘s silver medal-worthy mark of 25.64.
• Cameron McEvoy was the men’s 50 freestyle winner in the open field, taking the gold in a mark of 22.03.
• The women’s 200m IM saw Jenna Forrester produce a time of 2:15.41 to top the field while visiting Japanese swimmer Ryuka Ino was the quickest man in 2:03.15.
• In the boys’ 17-year-old 200m freestyle battle, a pair of racers dipped under the 1:50 threshold. Anders McAlpine logged a winning effort of 1:49.37 while Edward Somerville was also right there in 1:49.69.
• Hannah Fredericks was the winner of the women’s 200m backstroke in 2:15.00.
• Olympian Brianna Throssell posted a time of 2:10.40 in the women’s 200m fly to keep runner-up Quah Jing Wen at bay. Singapore’s Quah checked in with a silver medal-worthy time of 2:10.92.
• The men’s 299n fly saw 24-year-old Griffith University swimmer Bowen Gough touch in 1:58.81 for the victory.