Emma McKeon returns to the “Pool of Dreams” with a stunning record swim faster than a Sydney 2000 legend
Wollongong-born Emma McKeon, the four-time Rio Olympic medallist, who grew up swimming at the NSW Country Championships at the Sydney Olympic Aquatic Centre, owned the “Pool of Dreams” last night with a special record-breaking swim.
McKeon (Griffith University, QLD), who had shared the NSW and Australian All-Comers record in the women’s 100m butterfly with Sydney 2000 Olympic golden girl Inge de Bruijn from the Netherlands – claimed the mark in her own right in just 56.36 seconds.
De Bruijn won Olympic gold 20 years ago in 56.61 seconds – a time McKeon equalled in 2018 – but in a stunning performance the 25-year-old clocked the fastest time in the world this year - and fittingly she stood on the same medal podium as de Bruin did and had her own Australian National Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren cheering her on - the man who was in fact the Dutch Head Coach 20 years ago in Sydney.
“It is always good to come back here and race, its where I grew up racing at NSW Country and State Championships so it’s always nice to come back here and be swimming some quick times at this time of year. It gives you confidence as well,” said McKeon, with her mum and dad Ron and Suzie watching on and her grand-parents following online.
“We need to be able to swim quickly in the morning and this morning I wasn’t really expecting to swim that quick (57.19) so that put me in a good mindset for tonight’s swim.
“We have to practise swimming quick in the mornings and I just tried to relax because in my butterfly I rush it a bit too much because I’m more of a technical swimmer and that’s what gives me the early speed.”
And McKeon knows she has to be on song for the first morning of the Games where she is scheduled to swim the 100m butterfly semi-final and then the final of the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay.
“So I need to back it up with more speed. The training that Michael (Bohl) gives us helps with that as well,” said McKeon.
“I’m used to swimming multiple events and as I get older I want to keep improving; but it does give me confidence swimming this fast now (particularly when) we don’t know when our next competition will be.
“The 100m freestyle (beating Cate Campbell in 53.00) was really good; that’s the quickest I’ve been unrested and I’m really enjoying my swimming at the moment so that’s making a big difference.
“We were planning on doing one meet per month (but we are now not going to the Pro Swim Meet in Mission Viejo next month) so its good to get some fast times on the board now.
“Hopefully we’ll have the Sydney Open (in May) and we always do some suited racing at home; there’s always something we can do to replicate the racing with a lot of good competition around us (in South East Queensland).
It was a record-breaking night with Kaylee McKeown setting the Sydney Olympic Aquatic Centre alight last night with a sizzling second finals session at the NSW State Open Championships.
With swimming’s immediate competition future cancelled, these NSW Championships continue to produce red hot races – with NSW and Australian records tumbling in world best times.
Kaylee McKeown (USC Spartans – Coach Chris Mooney) toppled her world-class opponents Emily Seebohm (Griffith University – Coach Michael Bohl) and Minna Atherton (Brisbane Grammar – Coach David Lush) clocking 58.84 to win the 100m backstroke – also in a new NSW All-Comers record – maintaining her ranking as only one of four swimmers under 59 seconds in 2020, and following her NSW All-Comers record in the 200m backstroke on the opening night.
McKeown took 0.06 off Seebohm’s previous NSW All-Comers record set by the triple world champion in 2015 and who finished second (59.77) ahead of former training partner and World championship silver medallist and world short-course record holder Atherton (59.90).
Cate Campbell (Knox-Pymble – Coach Simon Cusack) 24.19, McKeon 24.29 and Madison Wilson (Marion – Coach Peter Bishop) 24.74 led the way for the NSW Blues with the girls clocking the third, fourth and 10th fastest times respectively for 2020 in the 50m freestyle final.
Sydney Olympic Swim Club’s Matthew Wilson added his second gold medal of the meet, winning the 100m breaststroke in 1:00.39; after his 50m win on night one, while Carlile boys Se-Bom Lee won gold in the men's 200IM in 2:02.20 and Edward Marks the 50m butterfly in 24.27.
Wilson will line up in his pet event, the 200m breaststroke on the final day before the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre closes its doors to the general public tonight – the facility only open to Adam Kable’s elite High-Performance squad as they continue their preparations towards the June Olympic Trials in Adelaide and “fingers crossed” and “Coronavirus permitting” the Olympics in Tokyo in July-August.
There was also great success for NSW swimmers in the Multi-Class events with Taylor Corry (Nelson Bay) in the Multi-Class 100m butterfly (1:09.02); Alexander Tuckfield (SLC Aquadot) in the Multi-Class 400m freestyle in 4:24.90 and Timothy Hodge (Auburn) in the Multi-Class 100m backstroke in 1:04.11, all winning gold medals.
Meanwhile, Kyle Chalmers (Marion –Coach Peter Bishop) powered to his third victory of the meet in a powerhouse men’s 200m freestyle in 1:46.12 – the fourth-fastest time in the world this year.
Chalmers has been unstoppable in two powerhouse days of swimming but had to work hard down the final lap to keep Bond boys Alex Graham (1:47.11) and Elijah Winnington (Coach Richard Scarce) at bay in a helter-skelter race to lock in places in Australia’s individual and world championship-winning 4x200m freestyle relay.
Winnington later negative split the 800m (4:03.40/3:58.26) 8:01.66 for his second gold of the meet after winning the 400m on night one - chasing down Griffith University-based Indian National Team member Kushagra Rawat (3:59.99/4:01.72) 8:01.71 - in a thrilling finish to win by just 0.05.
But 19-year-old Winnington's night was far from over - he then anchored the Bond boys home in the 4x200m freestyle relay in a tidy 1:47.73 combining with his Commonwealth Games gold meld-winning teammate Graham (1:48.21), 18-year-old Connor Simms (1:54.63) and Currumbin's Australian Lifesaving Team world champion Matt Davis (1:52.38).
The 200m backstroke winner Tristan Hollard (Southport Olympic – Coach Glenn Baker) showed why he will be a boy most likely coming the Olympic Trials, clocking a personal best time of 1:56.98 which is under the Australian Olympic qualifying time – and elevates him to third in the world this year with second-placed Bradley Woodward (Coach Adam Kable) chiming in with his 1:57.45 - just outside the time but certainly in the mix alongside Australia's No 1 backstroker Mitch Larkin.
Australia’s most consistent swimmer of the summer Kiah Melverton (TSS Aquatic – Coach Chris Nesbit) won her 11th State title of the season (in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia) adding the 400m freestyle in 4:09.23 to her 800m win on night one, leaving Dahlas Rogers (USC Spartans, Coach Chris Mooney) 4:12.05 and World Junior Champion Lani Pallister (Cotton Tree - Coach Janelle Elford) 4:12.36 to fight out the minors. Olympic note: Dahlas' father Greg Rogers was a member of Australia's silver-medal winning 4x200m freestyle relay in Mexico (1968) and Elford was a finalist in both the 400 and 800m freestyle in Seoul in 1988.
In other events.... Bond's Gemma Strauch (2:25.97) the women's 200m breaststroke; Braedan Jason (USC Spartans) the Multi-Class 100m butterfly (1:00.54); Katja Dedekind (USC Spartans) the Multi-Class 400m freestyle in 4:42.71 and the 100m backstroke in 1:08.54.
Written by Ian Hanson, Hanson Media Group
