2020 SOUTH AUSTRALIA STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, January 18 – Thursday, January 23rd
- SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre, Oaklands Park
- LCM
- Meet Site
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
Visiting Queenslander Kaylee McKeown showed up big-time on day 2 of the 2020 South Australia State Championships, with the 18-year-old throwing down the fastest 100m backstroke time of her career in 58.52.
Entering this meet McKeown’s personal best rested at the 59.10 she produced at the 2019 FINA World Aquatic Championships. There in Gwangju, she finished in 5th place, with fellow Aussie Minna Atherton taking silver in 58.85 behind winner Kylie Masse of Canada’s 58.60.
Flash forward to tonight at SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre and McKeown’s 58.52 would have beaten both those women to land atop the podium, composed of splits of 28.73/29.79.
In fact, McKeown’s effort now makes her the 2nd fastest Aussie swimmer in history, sitting only behind iconic Olympian Emily Seebohm. Seebohm owns the national record in 58.23 from the 2012 Olympic Games in London where she snagged silver behind America’s Missy Franklin.
McKeown of the Sunshine Coast first broke the minute mark in 2018 at the Pan Pacific Championships where she placed 5th in 59.91. Along with Seebohm, Wilson, and Atherton, McKeown is now just the 4th Aussie female ever to dip under the 59-second threshold in the event.
Top 5 Aussie Females All-Time in 100 Back:
#1 58.23 Emily Seebohm 1992 London 28.07.12
#2 58.52 Kaylee McKeown 2001 Oakland Park
#4 58.60 Minna Atherton 2000 Gwangju 23.07.19
#3 58.75 Madison Wilson 1994 Kazan 04.08.15
#5 59.29 Belinda Hocking 1990 London 30.07.12
Worldwide all-time, McKeown now enters the top performers in slot #9, joining the top 10 exclusive club with teammate Seebohm. America’s Regan Smith remains the only female ever to get under 58 seconds, establishing the current World Record in 57.57 from Gwangju.
| Time | Swimmer | Country | Meet | Swim Date | Location |
| 57.57 | REGAN SMITH | USA | 2019 WORLD CHAMPS | 7/28/2019 | GWANGJU |
| 58 | Kathleen Baker | USA | 2018 Summer Nationals | 7/28/2018 | Irvine |
| 58.1 | Kylie Masse | CAN | 7/25/2017 | Budapest | |
| 58.12 | Gemma Spofforth | GBR | 2009 World Champs | 7/28/2009 | Rome |
| 58.18 | Anastasia Fesikova | RUS | 2009 World Champs | 7/29/2009 | Rome |
| 58.23 | Emily Seebohm | AUS | 7/28/2012 | London | |
| 58.33 | Missy Franklin | USA | 2012 Olympic Games | 7/28/2012 | London |
| 58.45 | Katinka Hosszu | HUN | 2016 Olympic Games | 8/8/2016 | Rio |
| 58.62 | Kaylee McKeown | AUS | 2020 South Aussie States | 1/19/2020 | Oakland Park |
How is Atherton’s 58.60 ranked #4 while Wilson is #3 with 58.75?
It’s copy pasted from Swimming Australia’s ranking PDFs and they’ve got heaps of errors. They shouldn’t even be maintaining them manually but they’re stuck in the past.
i hesistate to say this, but, with all the casual 58s that we see so far…dare i say that in Tokyo it may take a sub-58 to win…..bronze?
Looking more and more like Seebohm may have to focus on the I.M events. Mckeown and Atherton are flying!
Kaylee is also a better 200 imer .
She’s also, arguably, AUS’ best 400IMer but its unlikely she’ll swim that in Tokyo and open to question whether she’ll swim 200IM. DO agree that Seebohm’s best route for a 4th Olympics is via 200IM.
I think Seebohm’s best chance is still the 200 back because it’s yet to be seen if Atherton can translate her SCM times back to LCM. Her underwaters helped her a lot in SCM.
Seebohm wont be in Tokyo. She will not make the Backstroke or IM events. SHe should have retired after a home commonwealth games in 2018.
Is that year of birth or year swum in top list ? Mixed up
Year of birth. Regan is just a really precocious one year old.
So can the Aussie medley relay compete with the americans?
No
King makes such a difference. No one else has a reliable 1:04.
Efimova’s syringe found fuming at this comment
The Canadians can depending on which Ruck shows up for Tokyo.
Breast is too weak for the Canadians.
Yes
No King & Smith (the Aussie girls still have to have another 1 sec improvement & that based on Smith not improving).
Australia will be strong favs for 4×100 free. It’s the 4×200 free that will be a classic confrontation between US & Australia & Canada looming.
Ofcourse.
They probably need a 1.05 breaststroker though. Which doesn’t look particularly likely.
Jess Hansen ? Fingers crossed
A case CAN be made but it centres around 2 significant “if” factors. The first being Atherton translating her SCM form from ISL to LCM and thus negating/matching Smith. The 2nd is finding a breaststroke leg splitting as close to 1.05flat as possible thus limiting the damage King normally supplies.
The next couple of months may tell us more regarding Atherton and this time from McKeown certainly adds another ingredient to the pot. Of the 2 “ifs”, this looks the more plausible.
Hansen DID split sub 1.06 at 2018 Pan Pacs but she’d need to be back swimming minimum 1.06 v.low or ideally sub 1.06s individually in order to deliver the relay split that would leave AUS still in… Read more »
Nice analysis. Atherton and McKeown look promising; they are both improving and dropping impressive times, but I agree that keeping up with Smith could be a tough ask, especially if she’s in WR form (or better).
Australian breaststroke is in a sorry state (except for the men’s 200, which unfortunately doesn’t directly help the medley relay) and pretty far behind the elites from the rest of the world. Probably the best hope is for Hansen to be at least back at 2018 Pan Pacs form, but even then, that’s probably about a full second split behind King.
Then, if McKeon can out-split Dahlia by some fraction of a second and C1 can throw down her usual heroics, then… Read more »
Multiple 57s at Tokyo seems likely.
+ Project 56
Multiple 57s at USA trials also seems likely
Out in 28.7 – She has developed her speed really inpressively in the last two years. Hopefully McKeown and Atherton can push eachother towards the 58s barrier.
I’ll take Panziera to medal in the 200. She swam well and Worlds considering the circumstances she found herself in.
She had cytomegalovirus over the summer. Back on track now. It was covered in an Italian language article on Swimswam too.
indeed