Having swum up to Grant Hackett's virtual shoulder in the 800m free with a career best on day 1 at Australian S/C Championships, Sam Short delivered a repeat feat in the 400m with a dominant 3:35.16 victory.

Within an arm swing of the best efforts of Hackett and his Dolphin-twin freestyle giant Ian Thorpe (respectively 3:34.58 - 18/07/2002 and 3:34.63 - 21/01/2003) Short delivered yet another career best, by 0.96sec this time, to rise from 5th to 4th on the all-time Australia 400 s/c rankings. Thomas Neill, on 3:35.05, withstood the test from Short, while Elijah Winnington and the 3:35.89 in which he claimed the 2024 World title were leapfrogged by the 2026 national s/c champion.

That global crown will not be defended, Winnington home in second place but on 3:39.24, 0.1sec shy of the Aussie qualification target for titles in Beijing in December.

Asked to sum up, Short said: "Solid. I didn't really know what to expect coming to this meet. I was really surprised with the 800. I had a feeling my fitness is a bit better than my speed at the moment, just because I've just been kind of maintaining (training) but I wasn’t doing too much quality stuff. But yeah, second PB there."

And Hackett's 3:34.58)? “Yeah, I think that's gone in a couple months, short course, at least.

He's reminded he that about the 800 as well, and replies:

“Yeah, they're both, you know, the days are numbered. I haven’t done much short course so I just get better and better every time I swim.

All hunger for the next training block?

“Yeah, definitely. With a couple of months of good training under my belt, I'll smoke that I think. And, you know, short course worlds, I doubt I'll be leading at 200 if the field is strong and then, you know, it will carry me through with a good race."

Among those who may await him in Beijing is 19-year-old Zhang Zhanshuo, who just put in a 3:41.55 long-course 400m for victory at the Asian Games in Tokyo in a week in which he claimed seven golds for China:

Zhang The 7-Golds Swim Star Of Asian Games On 3:41.2 For 400 Free Meet Mark

Zhang Zhanshuo, 19, is now the fastest Chinese 400 free man with a clean record and the fastest ever in textile with a clean record, his new high shy of Sun Yang* but ahead of Zhang Lin and his 2009 best, helping China to dominant 30-gold-medal triumph

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Says Short on Zhang:

“I raced him at Pan Pacs and had him covered at Pan Pacs, but he’s absolutely massive. He's got all the tools to be a great, great swimmer. It's hard to compare times (at different meets) but my Pan Pacs time still would have beaten him in my main events."

Do you think he'll be there at short course, given it's in Beijing?

"Oh, I hope so. Yeah. I hope so. Who knows? If Léon Marchand decides to do that, then that will take it up a notch completely because I can't really do underwater and he’s the underwater guy, so there's going to be a lot of other better guys as well as Zhang."

Asked about altitude training, Short noted that he'll be at altitude and sea-level all at the same time in his next training cycle:

“The plan is to get in the altitude tent soon, so I'll be sleeping at 4000 metres inside my bedroom in Brisbane. And we’re scheduled for February to go to Flagstaff to prepare for a big 2027 campaign.”

Women’s 400m freestyle - Pallister Sinks Titmus' All-Comers Mark on 3:54.55

• Lani Pallister 3:54.55 (All Comers Record, former record Titmus 3:54.58)

With 200 and 1500m victories under her belt on day 1, and silver in the 100 free on day 2, Lani Pallister now only has the 800m free to get through to make it a blanket of 100-1500m podiums, victory in the 400m today in 3:54.55 an all-comers record and workaday test all in one.

The 24-year-old shaved 0.03 off the all-comers standard set by Ariarne Titmus, Olympic champion (then with a 400m Games crown in the bag, a second one to come at Paris 2024, six years ago.

Second-placed Jenna Forrester clocked 4:02.68 just shy of the QT but already on the team for Beijing with a national-record victory in the 400IM.

Summing up her performance, Pallisters said:

“Yeah, fine. I mean, I haven't done a lot of work coming into it, but it was faster than I was at Duel in the Pool last year so I’ll take that, tick a box and it’s another event for China."

Got the All Comers record as well, and that is another one of Arnie's records. Were you aiming for a certain time going out there today?

“Not really. I mean, my best is a 3:51 something. I feel like when that's your best time you kind of expect to start pushing those times in the record books, but, yeah, just happy to get the job done today. Another event for my world short course program, and one more to go tomorrow night, with Jenna , which will be really fun again."

Given that you haven't had a big preparation, how are you finding, getting through the program this week?

“Yeah, fine. Typically at long course worlds I’m racing up to 5.5k, so this week's a little bit easy for me, which is quite nice. But at the same time, I think it also reflects where I am with the work that I've missed and what I haven't done, considering I had a break after Pan Pacs. So, it will be back to work, up to altitude in a couple weeks' time, up in Flagstaff again. So yeah, just pretty much getting back into full training, knuckling down and targeting world champs. I didn't really anticipate fast swimming this week. I was actually pretty shocked for the 200 being + .2 (to her personal best)."

Women’s and Men's 200IM (QT 2:07.17) - Kinder's 2:05.48 PB Ticket To Beijing - & Schlicht & Petric Join her in the Qualifiers Club

Medley specialists Tara Kinder, David Schlicht and Will Petric also punched tickets to December World s/c titles on Day 3 in Sydney .

Kinder claimed gold in a personal best of 2:05.48 ahead of Jenna Forrester, who missed the QT in a second event on the day but also celebrated a career high on the clock, on 2:07.62 a couple of hours after her silver in the 400 free.

Just 0.08sec split Schlicht and Petric in the men's final, the title to Schlicht in 1:53.45, sub-4min winner of the 400IM Petric on 1:53.53. The QT was 0.02sec the right side of Petric.

Women’s 100m butterfly - Castelluzzo Keeps The Crown

Brittany Castelluzzo made hay on 56.00sec, 0.12 inside target time for Beijing, while rival Alex Perkins was away, after withdrawing due to a digestive upset.

Castelluzzo defended her national title touch ahead of Claudia Fydler, who held off 100 free champion Olivia Wunsch 56.94 to 56.98.

Other qualifiers and winners

• Women’s 50m backstroke (QT 26.25): Iona Anderson 25.88 (PB, QT)
• Men’s 50m backstroke (22.89) Isaac Cooper 22.53 (QT).

In the Men’s 100m butterfly (QT 49.29), there was no instant ticket to Beijing, Matt Temple on 49.71 and not certain to travel for relays as Australia sticks with a place to take a team of 24 to World s/c titles.