McKeown - 27.06 - 57.73 - 2:04.47 - At NSW Titles After January Return With Marshall
Our Monday Morning Meet catch-up - NSW Titles: Nine sessions and two weeks back into full training at Griffith and pioneering Australian Olympic backstroke queen Kaylee McKeown chucks three gauntlets at the start of a new era with coach Mel Marshall
On the closing day at NSW State Championships in Sydney, Kaylee McKeown, 23 and based at Griffith now under the guidance of Mel Marshall - Adam Peaty's mentor from Britain - wrapped up a thumping, gauntlet-chucking return to racing when she rattled her own World record in the 50m backstroke with a 27.06 blast in heats.
Just 0.2sec shy of the global high bar she set at 26.86 at the Fukuoka World titles, McKeown, who in Paris last year became the first woman to claim the Olympic back-to-back double when she retained the 100 and 200m crowns, added to race-return sizzlers of 2:04.57 in the 200m on day 1 and 57.73 in the 100m on day 2 in Sydney. Her latest dash makes the Australian's best six career efforts par of her sixth share of the best 10 performances all-time.
Given that she returned to the pool in January after at least a couple of months break, and has only been engaged in "full-time" training - nine sessions a week - for the past fortnight, to say that her record-breaking, title-tilting days are done would be to underplay the potential building once more in the the queen of backstroke for the lioness' share of the decade past.
