Ariarne Titmus (St Peters Western) once again set the pool alight at the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre as she continued her electric form at the Australian Swimming Trials, by smashing her own Commonwealth record in the Women’s 200m Freestyle – clocking a remarkable time of 1:53.09.
With relay spots up for grabs it was a stacked field across the pool as Titmus and Griffith University’s Emma McKeon went stroke for stroke in the middle two lanes. The duo shared the lead throughout and were under world record time for most of the race, with Titmus putting her foot down in the final 50m to touch in 1:53.09 and McKeon in 1:54.74.
Speaking in the mixed zone post-race, Titmus said her 400m swim on night two gave her belief in her 200m race plan.
“More than anything the 400m gave me confidence. The back end in the 400 was the biggest thing I took out of the race. But I also knew I had to take it out with Emma, I knew she’d be out fast. She has way more speed than I do so I had to be as close to her as possible,” she said.
“I have to trust my back end. That’s my strength. I feel like in the past couple of years it had gone missing a little bit.”
USC Spartan’s Kaylee McKeown was again in sizzling form, this time in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley, blitzing the field to be the only swimmer under the qualifying time in 2:08.19, also claiming the All Comers record.
Auburn’s Timothy Hodge (SM9) dashed home in the Men’s 200m Individual Medley Multi-Class in 2:15.25, edging close to Paralympic legend Matt Cowdrey’s World Record. Local hero Jesse Aungles (SM8) also backed up his impressive heats swim to go faster this evening, posting 2:27.44 – under the qualifying time. Although experienced campaigner Matt Levy (SM7) set an Australian record in his morning swim (2:35.99), it wasn’t quite enough to see him qualify for his fifth Paralympics on day three.
In a closely fought race, it was Nunawading’s Matt Temple and TSS Aquatic’s David Morgan who took the spoils in the Men’s 200m Butterfly, both flying home under the qualifying time of 1:56.25. Temple clocked 1:55.25 while Morgan posted 1:55.40.
Bay and Basin teenager Jasmine Greenwood (SM10) beat her own Australian record – which she posted in this morning’s heats – when she flew home in 2:29.93 in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley Multi-Class. Her time also saw her go under the qualifying time.
Grant ‘Scooter’ Patterson (SM3) and Ahmed Kelly (SM3) were back in action on night three, this time in the Men’s 150m Individual Medley Multi-Class. Both men touched under the qualifying time of 3:08.15 with Central Cairn’s Patterson clocking 3:06.18 and Melbourne Vicentre’s Kelly, 3:00.70.
In the final event of the night – the Men’s 800m Freestyle – distance specialist, Jack McLoughlin (Chandler), hit the wall in 7:42.51 to book his ticket on the plane to Tokyo.
All the action from the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre kicks off again tomorrow, with heats beginning at 10am local time. You can all the action live on Amazon Prime Video from 9:50am local time.
To view all the results from the night, click here.
