2023 AUSTRALIAN AGE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- April 7-15, 2023
- Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, Southport, AUS
- LCM (50 meters)
- Championship Central
- Live Stream
- Live Results
The Australian Age Championships kicked off on Friday, April 7th, at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre in Southport. The first few days of the meet featured the multi-class para swimming events.
16-year-old Kael Thompson was one of the top performers through the first two days of the meet, winning several girls freestyle events. Thompson kicked things off on Friday with a win in the girls 16-18 100 free in 1:02.33. She got out to a great start, splitting 29.78 on the first 50, then came home in 32.55 to both get her hand on the wall first and come out as the winner in her age group.
Thompson then went on to win the para girls 16-18 200 free on Saturday, swimming a 2:19.82. It was a huge swim for Thompson, coming in well under her seed time entering the meet, which was a 2:23.66. She then went on to win the girls 16-18 50 back on Saturday as well, clocking a 32.85. That marked an improvement over her seed as well.
13-year-old Beau Matthews was phenomenal as well, winning three events on the first day of the meet. Matthews kicked off the action on Friday by winning the para boys 12-13 100 free in 1:00.12. With that performance, Matthews knocked a quarter-of-a-second off his lifetime best. He then turned around and won the 12-13 boys 100 back, where he sped to a 1:14.13. For Matthews, that marked another career best, this time by a little over two seconds. He wasn’t done there, however, as Matthews would go on to win the boys 12-13 200 IM in the same session. Matthews swam a 2:35.10, taking over four seconds off his seed time.
Matthews carried his momentum into Saturday, where he won another pair of events. He took the 12-13 boys 100 breast in 1:25.53. At the end of the session, Matthews would go on to win the boys 12-13 100 fly as well, finishing in 1:10.59. Also on Saturday, Matthews swam the 400 free, but for that event, the age group he was in was 12-15 boys, and Matthews ended up taking second. Matthews clocked the fastest time in the field, 4:44.15, but 15-year-old Callum Simpson (4:48.04) ended up finishing first in the standings.
17-year-old Samuel Gould was another swimmer who won several events on the first two days of the meet. Gould took the 16-18 boys 50 breast in 34.67. That time actually comes in a bit off his personal best of 33.84. Gould would go on from the 50 breast to win the 16-18 100 back on Friday as well, swimming a 1:08.80. He clipped his seed time of 1:08.84 with the swim.
Swimming a heavy schedule on Friday, Gould would then win the 16-18 boys 50 fly in 29.42, touching just off his prelims performance of 29.22. He wasn’t done there, however, as he also raced the 200 IM on the first day of the meet, where he competed in prelims, advanced to the final, but was unfortunately DQ’d in finals. He did clock a personal best of 2:22.43 in prelims, however.
On Saturday, Gould made it a sweep of the 16-18 boys breaststroke events, winning the 100 breast in 1:16.44, which took about half a second off his best time. Gould would grab a pair of second-place finishes on Saturday as well. In the 16-18 boys 200 free, Gould swam a 2:04.77, finishing in second behind 16-year-old Darren Sisman, who won the race with a 2:01.16. Gould also swam a 1:05.39 for second in the 16-18 boys 100 fly, again finishing behind Sisman, who won the event in 1:02.48.
