Matthew Wilson claims breaststroke treble on final night as State Opens comes to a close
Blue Mountains Olympic hopeful Matthew Wilson’s Tokyo campaign is well and truly on track after wrapping up the 50, 100 and 200m breaststroke treble at the NSW Championships in Sydney last night.
Wilson powered to a comfortable victory in his pet event at his home pool, the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre – clocking a solid 2:09.60 despite being in heavy training
And the good news is that he will have the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre to continue his 2020 Trials preparation despite the Centre closing down to the general public as the Coronavirus pandemic forces workforce and sporting centres to shutdowns.
“Very pleasing swims under a tough training load, I’ve certainly been pushing him in training and to see him pull that out tonight showed some good signs,” said Sydney Olympic Swim Team High-performance Head Coach Adam Kable.
“And we are lucky to have the pool space available to us to continue our preparations, not knowing what the future holds.”
NSW swimmers completed an outstanding State meet with See Bom-Le (Carlile) scoring a more than comfortable win in the men’s 400 IM in 4:19.55 in one of the most dominant performances of the weekend for the 18-year-old rising star.
While Loreto Normanhurst’s William Yang continued his rise in the backstroke ranks winning the 100m backstroke in 54.33 – showing his outstanding underwater skills from 200m backstroke winner Tristan Hollard (Southport Olympic) 54.85 and Bradley Woodward (Mingara) 55.16.
Paralympic golden girl Tiffany Thomas-Kane (Monte) was also in action last night taking out the Multi-Class 100m breaststroke in 1:37.79 from promising 16-year-old from Hervey Bay Keira Stephens (1:20.58) and Revesby Workers Victoria Jessamine (1:26.93).
While in the corresponding men’s event 33-year-old North Sydney Paralympic legend Matthew Levy showed no signs of slowing down, taking home the gold in 1:23.89 from fellow USC Spartans Paralympic Games star 29-year-old Blake Cochrane (1:18.05) with 18-year-old Valley Aquatic’s Darcy Gilson taking the bronze.
Meanwhile, Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers (Marion) may well consider adding the 100m butterfly to his Tokyo Olympic program according to his coach Peter Bishop – who says it’s not off the table.
The Rio Olympic 100m freestyle gold medallist showed his hand on the final night with an eye-catching personal best time of 51.37 – and the third-fastest time in the world this year.
It was his fourth victory in three days as the successful NSW State Open Championships wound up.
Swimmers from all over Australia including 20-odd Olympians filed out of the pool for the final time – heading home and not knowing whether their own training facilities would be open or shut. Not knowing when their next competition would be but in the firm belief they would do whatever it took to be ready to swim for their lives come July 24.
And judging by his attitude and his performances Chalmers will be leading the way.
The South Australian powerhouse added the 100m butterfly to his previous wins in the 200m butterfly (1:57.35), 100m freestyle (48.28) and the 200m freestyle (1:46.12) – all swum as he said before the meet “under fatigue” which is a scary thought.
Inspired to keep swimming and to get the absolute best out of himself by his rivalry with US nemesis Caeleb Dressel, Chalmers is in a good place both in and out of the water.
Mature well above his 21 years and happy and confident with his status as Australia’s youngest Olympic champion and looking to meet Dressel head-on in what we may well expect as they say “more than we bargained for.”
And although he said he had targeted the 200m freestyle here, the 100m butterfly was arguably his best swim – all things considered.
It was the third-fastest time for 2020 behind US pair World Champion Dressel (50.92) and Michael Andrew (51.33) – so it certainly puts him right in the mix – and would have seen him well and truly in the final in Rio and the 2019 World Championships.
But remembering Dressel did break the world record in the semi-final in Gwangju last year which stands at a staggering 49.50 – and backed up with his winning time of 49.66.
Only two Australians have ever swum faster – 2008 Olympic bronze medallist Andrew Lauterstein (50.85) in a super-suit – and Rio Olympian Grant Irvine’s 51.00.
“It’s on the table – especially after tonight – it was certainly a good swim (especially in heavy training) – but ultimately it’s up to Kyle and he won’t do anything that interferes with his 100m freestyle,” said Bishop.
“And I guess he would consider it if he thought he could win a medal.”
A glance through the Olympic program also suggests that “yes” it does appear to fit and “no” it doesn’t appear to interfere with the 100m freestyle.
It’s March and Chalmers is in a heavy work phase just as so many of these aspiring Olympians are, but they certainly stood up and delivered over the weekend.
Emma McKeon (Griffith University) showed just why she is regarded as swimming’s MVP – a term I have used before but that cap certainly fits.
The 25-year-old just keeps on getting the job done – adding the 200m freestyle in 1:55.38 – another NSW All-Comers Record time and the fourth-fastest time in the world in 2020 –coming on top of her wins in the 100m freestyle (53.00) and a rare win over Cate Campbell in the 50 and 100m butterfly (56.36) in another Australian and NSW All-Comers record.
And her most pertinent comments of the weekend were: “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.”
McKeon is in a happy place and it tells in the water where she and coach Michael Bohl appear to be stirring the pot with just the right mixture and if they continue to get the ingredients right then let’s pray “The birds of Tokyo” take flight.
Hot on the heels of McKeon and Campbell is Marion’s Madison Wilson – who was third in the 50m and 100m freestyle and second to McKeon in the 200m freestyle after clocking the second-fastest heat time in the 400m freestyle in a personal best of 4:13.20 – her fastest ever time – but she withdrew from the final to concentrate on the rest of her program.
Personal bests across the board followed in the 50m freestyle (24.74 – 10th fastest Australian), 100m freestyle (53.50 – 7th fastest Australian) and 200m freestyle (1:56.60 – equal 6th fastest Australian with one Stephanie Rice) – and you might say the move to Adelaide and coach Peter Bishop has been a good one.
Meanwhile, Kaylee McKeown wasn’t giving an inch to her rivals again – no matter who they were as she continued her whitewash of the women’s backstroke events – adding the 50m backstroke to her previous wins in the 100m and 200m both in NSW All-Comers records – with a comfortable victory in 27.57 (just outside her best) and too good for Emily Seebohm (Griffith University) 28.16, Minna Atherton (Brisbane Grammar) 28.24 and Wilson (Marion) 28.29 after earlier winning the 200m IM for good measure in 2:10.08 – and in a canter.
Written by Ian Hanson, Hanson Media Group
