Schooling Snags Win #2 At Aussie Short Course Championships

2019 AUSTRALIAN SHORT COURSE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, October 24th – Saturday, October 26th
• Melbourne Sports Centres (MSAC), Victoria
• SCM
• Meet Site
• Start Lists
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap
• Live Results

The action continued in Melbourne on day 2 of the 2019 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships.

Both Thomas Hauck and Gabriella Peiniger did major damage in their respective events of the men’s 200m free and women’s 100m fly. Hauck settled for 2nd place in a time of 1:45.42 to visiting Malaysian swimmer Welson Sim‘s time of 1:45.01 but was rendered Aussie national champion as the top host nation finisher.

You can read more about Hauck’s groundbreaking swim here.

For 22-year-old Sim’s part, the man established a new national record with his swim this evening. Splitting 51.47/53.54, Sim’s outing obliterated his previous lifetime best and national record mark of 1:48.25 set 2 years ago at a FINA World Cup stop.

Of note, Olympic gold medalist Mack Horton followed up his 10th place 400m free finish from last night with a morning swim of 1:49.89 in this 200m free. That rendered the Melbourne Vicentre athlete 16th and out of this 10-man final. He did, however, compete in the skins races, which are recapped later in this post.

Peiniger’s head-turner came in the form of her 56.54 field-crushing swim in the women’s 100m fly. Getting under the 57-second threshold for the first time of her young career, the MLC swimmer now checks-in as the 8th fastest Aussie performer, all ages, in this sprint event. You can read more about Peiniger’s performance here.

Olympian and Short Course World Championships bronze medalist in the 800m free, Kiah Melverton, doubled up on her 8free victory from night 1 with another gold this evening in Melbourne. She stopped the clock in a time of 4:03.50 to take the women’s 400m free by 3 seconds, earning her 3rd personal best of these championships. The TSS Aquatics’ previous career-fastest in this 4free event was represented by the 4:04.82 logged at this same meet in 2015. As such, she dropped over a second to take the 2019 title.

Also hitting a personal best was Marion’s Travis Mahoney, with the 400m IM Olympic finalist getting his hand on the wall first in the men’s 200m back in a time of 1:51.83. At 29, Mahoney’s time overtakes his previous lifetime best of 1:52.04 produced at the 2018 FINA World Cup stop in Singapore. Also in the race tonight was Hauck, who placed 5th but established a new Aussie Age Record for 16-year-olds in 1:55.28.

The men’s 100m breaststroke race saw Firbank Aquastars standout Sam Williamson get the job done in a big way, touching in a monster lifetime best of 57.94 to clinch the title. The man had never before been under the 58-second threshold, but did so comfortably, edging out his previous career-best of 58.73 from this same meet last year.

According to the Swimming Australia database, Williamson’s time checks him in as the 6th fastest Australian performer of all-time, relegating the late Kenneth To to 7th on the list.

1 57.14 Christian Sprenger 85 Commercial Nov’13 Tokyo
2 57.24 Matthew Wilson 98 SOPAC Nov’18 Singapore
3 57.54 Jake Packard 94 Indooroopilly Dec’14 Doha
4 57.67 Tommy Sucipto 95 Rockingham Nov’16 Brisbane
5 57.79 Brenton Rickard 83 Southport Olympic Dec’10 Dubai
6 57.94 Sam Williamson Firbank Aquastars Oct ’19 Melbourne
7 58.05 Kenneth To 92 Trinity Grammar Oct’13 Doha

Following up on his 100m free victory from last night, visiting Singaporean swimmer Joseph Schooling nailed the win in the 50m fly tonight, registering a time of 22.70. That result edged out teammate Tzen Wei Teong by just .04, with the pair reprssenting the only sub-23 second swimmers of the field. The top finishing Aussie was Edward Marks who touched in 23.09.

The exciting skins events, which were swum as exhibition and simply for cash and bragging rights, saw Melbourne Vicentre training partners Kotuku Ngawati and Elyse Woods duke it out in the home stretch, with the former winning the women’s $1,000 prize.

The men’s sprints came down to Matthew Temple and Horton, with Temple ultimately taking the top prize over Horton by just .18.

Skins-specific times were not available at the time of publishing.

Additional Winners:

• Canberra’s Hayley Baker doubled up on her 200m back win from night 1 with a victory in the 100m back, hitting the wall in a time of 57.71.
• Jenna Strauch retained her 200m breast title from 2018, topping the podium in a mark of 2:21.75. She took the 100m breast last night as well. Runner-up Tara Kinder claimed silver in 2:23.31, becoming the 3rd fastest Aussie 16-year-old ever in the process.
• Ngawati doubled up on the women’s sprint free events, adding the 50m free tonight to her 100m free victory from night 1. Tonight she touched in 24.63 for the win.
• Tomas Elliott of Ravenswood took the men’s 200m IM gold in a time of 1:58.42. Of note, Schooling swam in the morning heats of this event, producing an effort of 1:58.56 to take the 3rd seed before opting out of the final. That time fell just .14 shy of the Singaporean national record.
• Hunter’s Meg Bailey also claimed her 2nd title of the meet, pairing her 400m IM win from last night with a 100m IM gold this evening with a time of 1:00.16. She beat the field tonight by over a second to take the top prize.