McKeown Already 59 In 100 Back Heats, Chalmers Among 200 Free Targets

NEW SOUTH WALES STATE OPEN C’SHIPS

• Thursday, March 18th – Sunday, March 21st
• Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center
• LCM (50m)
• Heats in evening (5 pm local)/Finals in morning (10 am local)
• Start List
• Day 1 Prelims/Day 2 Finals
• Results – Meet Mobile

After a feisty day 1 of finals here at the 2021 New South Wales State Open Championships, day 2 looks to bring the heat as well, with the likes of Emma McKeon, Kyle Chalmers and Kaylee McKeown back in the water.

As a reminder, the heats are taking place at night, with finals in the AM, replicating the timing set to take place at this summer’s Olympic Games.

Yesterday, 19-year-old McKeown fired off a massive 2:05.66 in the women’s 200m backstroke to not only claim gold but to check-in with the 11th fastest performance in history.

This time around, McKeown took on the 100m back, punching the top time of the evening with an impressive 59.26. Just for perspective, that time would have placed 6th in Gwangju at the 2019 FINA World Championships, a competition at which McKeown took 5th in 59.10 after snagging 200m back silver.

Tonight, her 59.26 leads Olympic finalist Madi Wilson by just under a second, with Marion’s Wilson checking in tonight 1:00.25. Emily Seebohm is also in the mix at 1:00.91, while short course world record holder Minna Atherton was a no-show.

Wilson was also among the women’s 50m free field, posting a near-lifetime best en route to claiming the 2nd seed. Touching in a speedy 24.78, Wilson sits less than half a second behind leader Cate Campbell of Knox, with C1 registering a cool 24.39 to land lane 4.

McKeon put up a time of 24.85 to round out the top 3 seeds of the women’s 50m free after already having topped the women’s 100m fly field earlier in the session. In tonight’s prelim, Griffith’s McKeon logged one of two sub-minute outings in 59.36, while 20-year-old Alexandria Perkins will flank the Olympian with a 2nd-seeded 59.81.

The aforementioned McKeown was also in this 100m fly field, posting a time of 1:00.38 as the 4th fastest swimmer of the prelim. The teen keeps raining PB’s, as her result here tonight hacks over half a second off of her previous 1fly lifetime-quickest of 1:00.94 from September 2020.

Chalmers took 100m free gold this morning in a time of 48.50 in his first individual race post-shoulder surgery. Today, he took on his 2nd event, the 200m free, putting up a solid prelim time of 1:49.63 to rank 3rd out of the heats.

Taking lane 4 was Bond’s 25-year-old Alex Graham in 1:48.92, while St. Peters Western’s Jack Cartwright will flank him alongside Chalmers with his swim of 1:49.29. The 400m free victor here, Elijah Winnington, is right there as well, ready to pounce to the lead tomorrow morning with a heats swim of 1:49.63.

Of note, 400m free Olympic champion Mack Horton turned in a 14th place time of 1:52.49 in the 200m free, while World Championships finalist Clyde Lewis did not race.

Additional Top seeds:

• A close battle looks to ensue tomorrow morning in the women’s 400m free, with TSS Aquatic teammates Kiah Melverton and Maddie Gough separated by less than half a second. The former registered a prelim time of 4:09.40 to the latter’s 4:09.87, with teen machine Lani Pallister lurking as the 4th-seeded swimmer in 4:13.71.
• Loredo Normanhurst World University Games gold medalist William Yang led the men’s 50m fly field in the only sub-24 second outing of 23.56.
• The mens’ 100m breast saw Matt Wilson coast to the top seed in 1:01.06, while Jenna Strauch did the same in the women’s 200m breast in 2:27.11.