There is no stopping Kaylee McKeown: In 54.56, the Dolphin who in Paris became the first woman ever to retain both the 100 and 200m Olympic backstroke titles, took down the World short-course record over four lengths win the opening night at the 2024 Australian Short Course Championships in Adelaide.

The global standard had stood to fellow Australian Minna Atherton at 54.89 since the International Swimming League series in Budapest back in October 2019, while the Aussie all-comers mark of 55.46 had been held by Emily Seebohm since 2015.

The 23-year-old McKweown emerged from her latest blast to say that she would race on World Cup tour but the World s/c titles remained in the balance of to-be-decided:

“I was going a bit stir crazy, sitting at home, so decided to jump back in two and a bit weeks ago, and just increasing the sessions. I don’t mean to toot my own horn but we’re doing some pretty incredible stuff at training. I’ll see how I feel after World Cups (in October/November) … and see if I want to do World Short Course in December … but I'm not putting any pressure on myself.”

Her coach Michael Bohl is on a well deserved break for the coming year, so McKeown is being guided by Janelle Pallister – assistant coach to Bohl at Griffith University and a 1988 Olympian whose daughter is the backstroke ace's Olympic teammate, Lani Pallistrer, winner of the 200m free todays in Adelaide. Said McKeown through Swimming Australia:

“Janelle’s been an absolute legend. She’s taken us on board and obviously she’s been under Bohl for a few years now, so she knows what she’s doing. Lani also produced a great swim tonight, so did a few other young swimmers."

Full report below from day 1 action that included national records for Ed Somerville, 19 (1:40.64, 200 free) and Josh Yong (56.76, 100 breaststroke).