Australia’s premier male freestyle sprinter, Olympic champion, Kyle Chalmers (Marion, SA) has entered the fray on day two of the 2023 Sydney Open and UINISPORT Nationals in Sydney – cruising into tonight’s blue ribband 100m freestyle final, a field with an international flavour.
One of the biggest names in the sport, fresh from successive wins at the NSW and Australian Championships, Chalmers looked as comfortable as ever, stopping the clock in 48.89 to win his heat from New Zealand visitor Cameron Gray (Coast, NZ) 49.49 and Dylan Andrea (Chandler, QLD) 49.96.
He looks every bit at home here at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, host pool for the 2000 Olympics, as he does in his native Adelaide.
And his main competition is likely to come from heat three winner and his Commonwealth Games relay gold medal-winning teammate Flynn Southam (Bond University, QLD) who also looked very much in control, clocking the second fastest time of the day with his 49.40.
At last month’s Australian Championships, it was Chalmers who greeted the judge to win the final in 48.00 from Queensland’s rising stars Kai Taylor (48.41) and Southam (48.53).
Tactically it will be an interesting match race with both Chalmers and Southam renown big finishers as they continue their campaigns towards next month’s World Trials in Melbourne, chasing the two available spots in the 100m freestyle for Fukuoka.
Other qualifiers include Chalmers SA training partners, German international Josha Salchow, the fourth fastest qualifier in 49.93 and fellow Tokyo Olympic medallist Matt Temple sixth fastest in 50.27.
Twenty-three-year-old Temple has already had a busy meet, winning the 100m butterfly last night and qualifying for the 200m butterfly later tonight.
Griffith University’s Bowen Gough (2:01.16) heads a tightly bunched field for the 200m butterfly final with just one-and-a-half seconds between Gough and Temple’s 2:02.73, with Harrison Turner (Chandler, QLD) 2:01.47, Ruan Van Der Riet (USC Spartans, QKD) 2:01.66 and last night’s 200IM winner William Petric(Nunawading, VIC) in between with his 2:02.41.
And the women’s events will again feature last night’s 200IM Australian All-Comers record breaker Kaylee McKeown (Griffith University, QLD) who will open the program with the 400IM final and followed by the 100m backstroke which saw a leisurely heat win in 1:00.72, sharing top billing with visiting Norwegian international Ingelborg Loeyning who won heat two in the same time.
The women’s 200m freestyle will feature last night’s impressive 400m winner, visiting Kiwi teenage star Erika Fairweather who won her heat in 1:58.30 and last night’s 50m winner, Meg Harris (Marion, SA), fourth fastest in 2:01.40.
Harris’s SA training partner, Madison Wilson, second in the 50m freestyle and winner of the 50m backstroke, is the top qualifier in 1:57.10, with Lani Pallister (Griffith University, QLD), second to Fairweather in the 400m, the third fastest in 1:59.28.
