Olympic Golden Girls Show Their Wares With Bronte Campbell Back In The Fast Lane On A Night Of Tight Finishes
Tokyo Olympic golden girls Kaylee McKeown, Ariarne Titmus, Emma McKeon showed they all mean business and triple Olympian Bronte Campbell signalled she is also back in the fast lane to Paris on night two of the NSW State Championships.
While Flynn Southam overcame a visit to hospital with food poisoning to win the 200m freestyle and Lani Pallister, Matt Galea and Ben Goedemans were also in the thick of a night of tight finishes at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.
Dual Olympic champion McKeown (Griffith University, QLD) continued her world backstroking domination– chasing her own world record to the very last strokes of the 100m backstroke final stopping the clock at 57.57 – just 0.24 outside her own world mark set last year.
The 22-year-old was exactly 0.12 outside her own 50m splits she set to win the World Cup event in Budapest – clocking the equal sixth fastest time in history – the fastest five owned by McKeown – tonight’s time she shares with US rival Regan Smith.
And she had some world class opponents next to her with Mollie O’Callaghan (St Peters Western, QLD) just outside her pb also, clocking 58.71 with 2019 World Championship silver medallist Minna Atherton (Bond, QLD) third in 1:01.42.
“I just have to trust my training and keep pushing it…every race to me is an opportunity to get up and try my best,” said McKeown.
“I am going to do that from the get-go and all the way to Paris (fingers crossed)…I am always learning and always trying to find something to improve on but once you are up in the top one percent then 0.10 is hard to find.
“And without a doubt it’s hard to get back into training to find something to work on but I’m the kind of person who believes in my program and my coach (Michael Bohl) especially and if he believes I can swim faster I have to believe in him as well.”
Asked what areas she thought she could improve on; the always cagey McKeown was not going to give anything away saying “Absolutely…but I’ll keep those to myself though!”
Meanwhile Tokyo Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Titmus (St Peters Western, QLD) had to pull out all stops to win the 400m freestyle against a fierce, reigning world short course champion Pallister to open night two.
That final 50m split of 29.55 seconds from Titmus (St Peters Western, QLD) was just fast enough to out-touch a brave Pallister (Griffith University, QLD) who clocked 29.97 – the two-time world champion coming from behind to claim the victory by just 0.26secs.
The pair had slugged it out, swimming eyeball to eyeball for eight laps – Titmus winning in 4:02.39 to Pallister’s 4:02.65 - in a sign of things to come at the Australian Olympic Trials in June.
It may have been seven seconds outside Titmus’ world record of 3:55.38 but with both girls in heavy training and after going hammer and tongs over 800m the night before (Titmus winning in 8:17.87 to Pallister’s 8:19.23) the pair dug deep to deliver the race of the meet so far.
Pallister only just over half-a-second off her personal best time, the 4:02.07 she clocked at the Berlin World Cup last October with Titmus’ club mate, world junior champion Jamie Perkins third home in 4:10.47 – also five seconds outside her pb of 4:05.72 set in Israel last year.
The splits tell the story of just what a ding-dong affair it was, Titmus starting stronger, Pallister lifting in the middle before the champ found something on the bell lap to take a close points decision.
But it wasn’t the closest finish of the night – that honour going to Matt Galea (SOSC, NSW) and Ben Goedemans (St Peters Western, QLD) with just one-one-hundredth of a second between the pair in the men’s 800m freestyle – Galea grabbing the gold in 7:59.96 to Goedemans 7:59.97.
While McKeon meant business in the 100m butterfly, adding the NSW title to her recent win in the Victorian State final, clocking 57.37 to old off young Queensland Olympic hopeful Alexandria Perkins (57.71) and Isabella Boyd (Nunawading, VIC) in 58.56.
She was later second to fellow 29-year-old triple Olympian Campbell in the 50m freestyle showdown – with the 2015 world champion winning against the Olympic champion with Campbell (Cruiz, ACT) stopping the clock in 24.64 from McKeon (Griffith University, QLD) 24.83 and O’Callaghan (St Peters Western, QLD) 24.83.
And Southam (Bond, QLD) revealed he had suffered a serious bout of food poisoning that landed him in hospital on the Gold Coast last week, recovering to win the 200m freestyle in 1:48.28 from Maximillian Giuliani (Miami, QLD) 1:48.53 and Alex Graham (Miami, QLD) 1:48.71.
“It was that bad I ended up in hospital on a drip and I didn’t think I’d make it to Sydney this weekend, but I had to come to prove something to myself – what would I do if the same thing happened the week before Olympic Trials….?” said Southam.
NSW State Championships Day Two Photo Credits Emma Newton
2024 NSW State Swimming Championships, Day 1, FINALS:
WOMEN
50m freestyle
1. Bronte Campbell (Cruiz, ACT) 24.64
2. Emma McKeon (Griffith University, QLD) 24.83
2. Mollie O’Callaghan (St Peters Western, QLD) 24.83
50m freestyle Multi-Class
1. Jasmine Greenwood (Cruiz, ACT) 29.02
2. Madeleine McTernan (Sharks Aquatic, QLD) 28.35
3. Taylor Corry (Kincumber Pacific Dolphins, NSW) 28.56
400m freestyle
1. Ariarne Titmus (St Peters Western, QLD) 4:02.39
2. Lani Pallister (Griffith University, QLD) 4:02.65
3. Jamie Perkins (St Peters Western, QLD) 4:10.47
400m freestyle Multi-Class
1. Ella Jones (Kincumber Pacific Dolphins, NSW) 5:08.47
2. Michelle Fawer (Engadine, NSW) 5:05.90
3. Emilee Pratt (Novocastrian, NSW) 5:23.30
100m backstroke
1. Kaylee McKeown (Griffith University, QLD) 57.57
2. Mollie O’Callaghan (St Peters Western, QLD) 58.71
3. Minna Atherton (Bond, QLD) 1:01.42
200m breaststroke
1. Jenna Strauch (Miami, QLD) 2:24.33
2. Matilda Smith (Miami, QLD) 2:26.67
3. Tara Kinder (Melbourne Vicentre, VIC) 2:29.00
100m, breaststroke Multi-Class
1. Ashley Van Rijswijk (Wagga Wagga,NSW) 1:20.10
2. Paige Leonhardt (Sharks Aquatic, QLD) 1:20.74
3. Rugby Storm (St Andrews, QLD) 1:22.01
100m butterfly
1. Emma McKeon (Griffith University, QLD) 57.37
2. Alexandria Perkins (USC Spartans, QLD) 57.71
3. Isabella Boyd (Nunawading, VIC) 58.56
MEN
50m freestyle Multi-Class
1. Alexander Tuckfield (Southern Sydney Swim Club, NSW) 25.43
2. Alex Saffy (Bunbury, WA) 26.23
3. Beau Matthews (Southern Sydney Swim Club, NSW) 26.29
200m freestyle
1. Flynn Southam (Bond, QLD) 1:48.28
2. Maximillian Giuliani (Miami, QLD) 1:48.53
3. Alex Graham (Miami, QLD) 1:48.71
800m freestyle
1. Matthew Galea (SOSC, NSW) 7:59.97
2. Ben Goedemans (St Peters Western, QLD) 7:59.97
3. Lachlan Walker (Bond, QLD) 8:05.37
400m freestyle Multi-Class
1. Harrison Vig (Uni of QLD Swim Club) 4:31.08
2. Daniel Rigby (Knox Pymble, NSW) 5:05.76
3. Jack Carey (SOSC, NSW) 4:36.87
200m backstroke
1. Se-Bom Lee (SOSC, NSW)1:59.29
2. Joshua Edwards-Smith (Griffith University, QLD) 1:59.94
3. Marius Bol (Carlile, NSW) 2:01.10
100m breaststroke
1. Matthew Wilson (SOSC, NSW) 1:01.19
2. Joshua Collett (Bond, QLD) 1:01.71
3. Haigh Buckingham (SOSC, NSW) 1:02.10
100m breaststroke Multi-Class
1. Riley Moore (Woy Woy, NSW) 1:13.51
2. Alex Saffy (Bunbury, WA) 1:15.49
3. Jesse Aungels (Cruiz, ACT) 1:24.37
50m butterfly
1. Ben Armbruster (Bond, QLD)n23.64
2. Matthew Temple (Marion, SA) 23.80
3. Shaun Champion (Abbotsleigh, NSW) 24.08
200m individual medley
1. William Petric (Nunawading, VIC) 1:58.78
2. Clyde Lewis (St Peters Western, QLD) 2:02.00
3. Marco Soesanto (Melbourne Vicentre, VIC) 2:03.75
