McKeon Clocks 1:55.3 200 Free, McKeown Nabs 200 IM/50 Back Double At NSW

2020 NEW SOUTH WALES STATE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, March 13th – Sunday, March 15th
• Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center (SOPAC)
• 50m (LCM)
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Start Lists
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Live Results

In addition to Kyle Chalmers ripping a 51.37 lifetime best in the 100m fly to become Australia’s 3rd fastest performer all-time, there were several other head-turning swims that wrapped up the 2020 New South Wales State Open Championships.

For starters, 25-year-old Olympian Emma McKeon turned some heads with her stellar gold medal-worthy time of 1:55.38 tonight in Sydney.

After playing it cool in the morning heats with a casual 1:59.65, the Griffith University swimmer unleashed splits of 55.63/59.75 to beat the field by over a second en route to becoming the world’s 4th fastest performer of the season.

McKeon took the Olympic bronze medal in this event, posting a time there in Rio of 1:54.92 behind winner Katie Ledecky of the United States (1:53.73) and silver medalist Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden (1:54.08).

Since then McKeon tied Ledecky for silver at the 2017 World Championships (1:55.18) and has been as quick as 1:54.55 at the 2019 World Championships Trials before she wound up dropping the race at the main event in Gwangju.

Another powerful performer in tonight’s race was represented by Madi Wilson, with the 25-year-old Marion swimmer crushing a lifetime best of 1:56.60 for silver. She previously held a PB of 1:56.85, a mark posted at the World Championships Trials.

Wilson, who was a backstroke finalist in Rio, but has been making major strides in the freestyle set since. She was a member of the prelims 4x100m freestyle relay in Gwangju, helping put the green and gold in position to eventually take world Championships gold there in that event.

18-year-old Kaylee McKeown has been impressive here in Sydney, posting a 2:06 200m back and 58.8 100m back already. Tonight she capped off the competition with a solid 2:10.08 to easily beat the 200m IM field by over 3 seconds.

McKeown owns a lifetime best of 2:09.94 in this event, a time she produced at last year’s World Championships Trials. She wound up dropping the event for Gwangju, however, instead opting to focus on the backstroke events where she took 200m silver.

McKeown’s 27.57 here is a new NSW State Record and overtakes her own previous personal best of 27.65 put up in Gwangju to tie Great Britain’s Georgia Davies for 4th.

A stacked 50m back field here tonight saw Emily Seebohm snag silver in 28.16, while Minna Atherton clocked 28.24 for bronze and Wilson was in the mix in 28.29 for 4th place.

Additional Winners:

• Leiston Pickett took the women’s 50m breast in a time of 31.15. Runner-up Georgia Bohl earned silver in 31.53 but established a new NSW State Record with her time.
• The men’s 200m breast saw 21-year-old World Championships silver medalist Matt Wilson get it done in 2:09.60, beating the field by almost 8 seconds.
• The men’s 50m freestyle was on the sluggish side, with 25-year-old Cameron McEvoy mustering 22.48 for the victory.
• The men’s 400m IM saw Se-Bom Lee double up on his 200m IM victory from earlier, hitting 4:19.55 in the longer distance for gold.
• William Yang nabbed the 100m back gold in 54.33, just .01 of the 54.32 he posted in the morning heats.
• Brisbane Grammar’s Alex Grant took the men’s 1500m free in a time of 15:24.46.
• TSS Aquatic athlete Kiah Melverton reaped gold in the 1500m free for the women in 16:14.66. She has been as quick as 16:05.75 at the U.S. Winter Nationals.