McKeown Simmers & Short At The Double With 200 Free Best
Kaylee McKeown on the international season ahead: "I'm just taking it meet by meet. Commies is the first one on my plate, so I'll go through that, hopefully recover well, and then see what I'm capable of doing at Pan Pacs. Whether that's relays, whether that's one or two races, I don't know."
Kaylee McKeown had been there before, of course; 25 times no less. Make it 26, career-long efforts, that is, under 58sec over 100m backstroke.
In 57.77, the Australian ace of backstroke aces added to her rankings dominance there and back at Trials to take her national stats to 28/30 and 38/50 of the best all-time performances by Australians. Not bad for a superstar with a sniffle and a slight respiratory infection.
Asked if she was confident about still being able to pull out a sub-58 under the circumstances, she replied:
"I never really go on with arrogance, or confidence that I’m going to pop a 57. I think that's still very rare air to be able to do that. So I need to give myself the encouragement that it is a good swim, not my best. It's still .67 over my best, but at the end of the day, it's not this year that counts, it’s LA."
At 20th and 30th on those all-time Dolphin performances ranks, we find Olympic and World 200m free champion Mollie O'Callaghan, while stalwart of Aussie backstroke and former Olympic and Worlds big-hitter Emily Seebohm is now at No34, such is the height of McKeown's might.
If victory in the dash yesterday by 0.06sec over O'Callaghan was a close call, her second title in as many days at the Trials was a relative walk in the Sydney Olympic Park pool - at least on the way home.
Out in 28.52, McKeown, coached by Michael Sage at the USC Spartans swim club on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, did not get her feet on the wall first.
Iona Anderson split 28.46. And then the writing was on the end wall long before the only quadruple Olympic women's backstroke champion n history approached then stop of clock: off the turn, the 200m World record holder's momentum motored her into a 29.25 return (take away the start, and we're looking at an even-steven of a swim).
McKeown's 57.77 was followed home by Anderson's 58.60, a fine effort that qualified the 20-year-old for international action and marked a return to the Dolphins after she missed last year with a back injury. Hannah Fredericks completed the top three, in 59.79, as last home inside the minute.
McKeown, who clock her first sub-58 of the year today, is a class apart in just about any company, let alone the home pool. Her best 100 is the 57.16 in which she claimed the 2015 World title in Singapore fell just shy of American Regan Smith's 57.13 World record. In actual racing, McKeown is a masterclass of winning ways, unbeaten on every big occasion this decade, and every domestic occasion that matters, too, like Commonwealth Games selection trials in a summer of Pan Pacs at which McKeown and Smith will rejoin battle, without the other American on the rise, Isabelle Stadden, whose leap down to a 57.5 came too late for her to be included in the picks for Pan Pacs.
McKeown noted her time as 'fourth fastest' this year in the world (its actually third), and added: "Obviously, I’d like to be fast in that, but we're our own harshest critics, and at the end of the day, I just need to do it when it counts."
Pan Pacs crops up, but McKeown wants none of that right now:
"I'm just taking it meet by meet. Commies is the first one on my plate, so I'll go through that, hopefully recover well, and then see what I'm capable of doing at Pan Pacs. Whether that's relays, whether that's one or two races, I don't know."
Anderson was delighted to be back, noting:
"It's definitely been tough to rebuild from the injury and stuff. It wasn’t ideal but I just had a great support crew around me. That helped me get back to where I am, they stuck through me and stuck through the ups and down. It's great to know you have that support behind you. And it’s great to be back here doing what love. It's definitely hard watching on the sidelines ... when it's something you are passionate about, it's just great to be back there in the team – it’s such a great culture in Australia."
Men's 200m Free
Short at The Double Atop Five On 1:45
Giuliana Misses Cut For Final
A day after delivering the first win of the Trials, Sam Short doubled down on his fine form with a 1:45.16 win in the 200m ahead of four others inside 1:46, Kai Taylor, Harrison Turner, Ed Sommerville and Charlie Hawke sailing home for first grabs at 4x200m free berths.
If a heats effort of 1:45.52 marked Shorts's first personal best of the day (inside a 1:45.71 from last year), the final raised his career high bar further still.
Sixth at the first turn, Short was up to fourth at half way, just inside half a second shy of Sommerville's 50.75 lead pace. At the last turn, the feet of Sommerville, Hawke, Short and Taylor, were too synched on impact with the wall for the naked eye to be sure it saw what the board confirmed: over in that order 0.16sec splitting the lot, Turner half a second back and about to catch up with the swiftest homceomer, but only just: 26.93 got him past Hawke and Somerville but Short's 26.94 and Taylor's 27.01 kept him at bay among the podium placers.
Australia will arrive at Commonwealths and Pan Pacs with a very solid 4x200m squad, though the fate of another pre-race contender, Max Giuliani, remains to be seen: he fell at the first hurdle today: 11th in 1:47.48, and a no show for the B final:
Having move to No.6 Aussie all-time in the 200m, Short was not the only man sporting a new PB when the clock stopped: he was joined by Taylor (1:45.30 PB and selection for the solo) and Turner (1:45.71 PB).
More known as a 400m title contender, Smart was asked about his approach to the 200m:
“It’s just trying to be there with 50 to go. I think I can easily try too hard and stuff up, but if I'm there in last 50, I know how to race, and that’s what I love doing. So that was my only strategy tonight, to stay with Ed. I thought Ed was the man to beat tonight as the only 1:44 swimmer in the field, so I just kind of swam off him as long as I could. And then it was just us three boys in a sprint finish."
And that 1:44 was very close. He said: "Honestly, I thought I had no shot of getting that. If you asked me before, if I was going to go 1:44, I’d have said no chance."
Confirming he will race the 200m at Commonwealths, Short said:
"I don’t want to give up an event, give up this event. Put me in there, I want to represent Australia as many times as possible. It's not like a world champs where you have to be on in all your heats to make the final. So there's a bit of a wriggle room there. If it was the world champs I’d definitely give it up, but a bit of an easy heat for 4, 8 and 15. So 100%, it’s a good opportunity. "
And what about prepping with some of these boys for the 4X2?, he was asked.
“I think it's great, you know, we're only 22. Yeah, me, Harry, and Kai, and Ed, I think, are same age. We raced at age nationals all the time. So it's just fantastic to see the progression through. You know, now we're one, two, three. And who knows how far we can take it? I just can't wait to race on the world stage with them.And all at 1:45. so... yeah, with a bit of mongrel, mate, 1:44s in there, and then we'll see what happens."
On the 800 and 1500 to come, Short said he was looking to keep the best time rolling after clocking his best 200 and 400m swims:
"So far I’ve got PBs in two out of two, so I really want a PB. That'd be great. I've been looking forward to the 800, to be honest. I think not too many people attack it as hard as they possibly could, so, I'm pretty excited to really challenge myself and see what happens. The pressure's off, I’ve been pushing some pretty crazy stuff in training, so I'm pretty pumped to go out there and give it some. I might feel like I'm dying, but I know I won't drop off the pace too hard. So pretty keen. For the 1500, obviously a PB would be great."
Taylor was'super-stoked' with a top 2 finish. The son of Hayley Lewis, star of the 1990 Comm Games for Australia), said:
"Yeah, definitely. Look, I think coming into this, you know, you always want to do a personal best and you're always striving to do personal best, but you always want to make the team. And I think that's the most important thing, and especially in a race, like the 100m or 200m freestyle, it's never about time. It's just a race. It's just who can get their hand on the wall first regardless of the time. But yeah, super-stoked with that swim."
And what did it mean to him to race his first PB in three years, since he was a teenager?
“I did a PB three years ago and my training's definitely been there for a PB, but I think it was really just about race execution and putting it together. I think I've matured a lot over three years and just figured out what I need and what my body needs, doing more, like, psychology work and all that sort of stuff. And I think all of that together is just what made that race come together."
Women's 100m breaststroke:
Nicole Jeffery
In Other Finals:
Victories went to Alexandria Perkins in 25.60 in the 50m butterfly; Matt Temple, on 50.50 in the 10-0m butterfly, with training partner Kyle Chalmers clocking 51.04 in heats before withdrawing; and 17-year-old Henry Allan, on 53.52 in the 100m backstroke.
Allan, 17, 203cm tall and yet to fill out, missed the cut with that win but may be picked for the medley relay. "I definitely hope so, for the relay especially," said the teenager coached by John Jordan at the Bendigo East Swimming Club in Victoria, and now part of the week by Craig Jackson at the Melbourne Viccentre.
"... but I guess it always comes down to just what the team thinks is best. I'm not going to get too sad if I don't get selected in the end, because I came out here and learned some things to take back. And I guess that's what matters in the end of it."
I guess the worst thing that can happen this year now is you're going to Junior Pan Pacs, he's asked.
"Yeah, exactly. So that's what I talked to Craig about, and he agrees. So like in the end, don't go in with too much expectations because you're guaranteed to come out with a team either way. And whether that's Comm Games, Pan Pacs or Junior Pan Pacs. That's what it is."
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