2016 AUSTRALIAN SHORT COURSE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Brisbane Aquatic Centre, Brisbane, Queensland
- Thursday, November 3rd – Saturday, November 5th
- Prelims 10am local (8pm Eastern night before)/Finals 6pm local (4am Eastern)
- Meet Preview
- Start Lists
- Live Results
Action kicked off in Brisbane today where top talent in Australia is taking to the pool in the name of garnering spots on their nation’s Short Course World Championships roster. Among the green and gold swimmers is a sprinkling of foreign talent, in the form of Korean Park Tae Hwan, Netherlands’ Maarten Brzoskowski and Denmark’s Mie Nielsen, among others.
Key Races From Prelims
The men’s 400m freestyle today was one of our marquis-preview events, with both Park and Brzoskowski entered to challenge the Aussies. Somewhat surprisingly, the gold medalist in the long course version of this event in Rio, Mack Horton, opted out of this race in Brisbane and is entered in a monster schedule of 7 mostly ‘off’ events instead. Last year’s title-winner, Thomas Fraser-Holmes, has also opted out of this event.
Brzoskowski and Park wasted no time making their presence known, clocking the swiftest two times in the race this morning. The Dutchman took the top seed in 3:43.85, while Park touched just .02 of a second back in 3:43.87. Daniel Smith was the fastest Aussie of the field this morning, earning a time of 3:44.47 to be right in the mix. Also making the final is young Jacob Vincent, as the 17-year-old raced to a 5th-seeded time of 3:48.95. Vincent is coming off of a successful Junior Pan Pacific Championships where he earned bronze in the LCM of this race and the 800m free.
Emily Seebohm got her 8-event line-up off to a quick start, claiming the top seed in the women’s 200m backstroke. Seebohm entered the meet as the top seed with a time of 1:59.49, knowing she’d be chased down by countrymate Minna Atherton, the Junior Pan Pac Champion in the 200m back and World Junior Record Holder in the 100m distance of this discipline. Atherton finished just under 2 seconds behind, earning 3rd seed in 2:07.28. In the middle is 19-year-old Melbourne Vicentre swimmer Sian Whittaker, who touched in 2:05.94.
15-year-old Kaylee McKeown is lurking as the 4th seed after this morning’s 200m back race. McKeown, who has been tearing up the Aussie age group records, claimed gold in this event at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships and will be looking to enter the senior ranks in both this and the 100m event.
Bronte Campbell kicked off her meet rather quietly, racing in one of her two freestyle events of the competition. Campbell clocked a time of 53.98 in the 100m freestyle to check-in as the 6th seed and within a second of the top speedsters of the morning. The number one seed was claimed by Campbell’s 4x100m freestyle relay from Rio, Brittany Elmslie. Elmslie touched in 53.00, with Dane Nielsen just behind in 53.12.
Also in the mix in the women’s 100m freestyle are 2016 Olympic Games 200m butterfly silver medalist Madeline Groves and 100m backstroke Rio finalist Madison Wilson. The two women touched in 53.31 and 53.39, respectively, to comfortably make it back to finals.
The men’s version of that same sprint freestyle event saw a veteran surge to the top of the field this morning. 25-year-old London Olympian Tommaso D’Orsogna claimed the top spot in the 100m free battle, touching in 47.32, a mark which already beat the 47.34 he threw down at this same meet last year.
Bond boys Brayden McCarthy and Cameron McEvoy wound up as the 2nd and 3rd seeds by just a hair, clocking respective morning marks of 47.36 and 47.45. For McEvoy, ‘The Professor’ holds the fastest LCM 100m freestyle ever in a textile suit, so his speed is just getting started.
Smith doubled up on his 400m free outing with a 4th-seeded 47.49 100m free this morning, while the Olympic Champion in the LCM version of this event, Kyle Chalmers, earned a 5th seed in 47.91. Korean Park was listed in this event, but was a scratch.
