2023 QUEENSLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, December 9th – Friday, December 15th
- Brisbane Aquatic Center
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Draft Entries
- SwimSwam Preview
- Live Results
Day one of the 2023 Queensland Championships brought a slew of club relays, including the open men’s and women’s 200m free and medley relays.
As a refresher, these championships present a last-chance opportunity for Aussie swimmers to qualify for the 2024 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, although head coach Rohan Taylor doubts the maximum roster size of 20 will be met.
We already reported how Olympic multi-champion Kaylee McKeown fired off a near-lifetime best in the women’s 50m back en route to leading off her Griffith University’s 200m medley relay. She notched a 26.98 opener to check in with the #2 performance in history, sitting only behind her own World Record of 26.86 produced this past October.
Ultimately, Griffith wound up with the bronze in 1:51.04 while St. Peters Western took gold in 1:50.54 and Rackley the silver in 1:51.00. All of the top 3 teams beat the previous Queensland and Queensland All Comers Record of 1:51.47 Chandler put on the books in 2017.
All Comers Records represent the fastest time established by any athlete(s) from any nation on state soil.
The men’s 4x50m medley relay saw Bond get to the wall first, with the combination of Ben Armbruster, Joshua Collett, Jesse Coleman and Flynn Southam collectively clocking a time of 1:39.84.
Armbruster led-off in 25.62 and Collett continued in 27.64. Coleman carried the speed in 24.36 before World Championships medalist Southam sealed the deal in 22.22.
The next-closest men’s medley came from Rackley in 1:41.47, highlighted by Tommy Neill‘s anchor of 21.94. St. Andrew’s rounded out the podium just .02 off of silver, clocking 1:41.49. Isaac Cooper kicked it off in 24.74 to help the squad land on the podium.
St. Peters Western saw its women’s 4x50m freestyle relay grab the gold in record-breaking fashion. The quartet of Shayna Jack (24.49), Mollie O’Callaghan (24.56), Brianna Throssell (25.01) and Jaclyn Barclay (25.24) punched a result of 1:39.30 to register a new Queensland and Queensland All Comers Record.
McKeown was in the water for this race as well, leading off Griffith’s foursome who touched in 1:40.57 for silver. Her teammates included 2nd leg Jade Starr 925.14), Pheobe Bentley (25.24) and anchor Lani Pallister (24.96).
Bond wound up on top of the men’s 4x50m free relay podium, courtesy of a performance by 3 of 4 members of its medley relay. Armbruster led-off in 22.71 followed by Collett who notched the same result as the 2nd leg. Lewis Treggiden hit 22.39 while Southam got the final wall in 22.16.
Of note, Cooper anchored St. Andrew’s bronze medal-worthy squad with the swiftest anchor in 21.62.
Some additional Doha QTs from day one:
Iona Anderson 100BK
Kaylee Mckeown 200FR (already ruled out going)
Thomas Neill 200FR
I hope Mollie goes. She could clean up freestyle and backstroke alone.
She’ll have Haughey to deal with in the freestyles and at least Curzan in the 100 back.
She’s beat both of them before and she’ll do it again!
Less racing mileage leading in could be good?
The more I think about it, it fits perfectly fine within SPW’s prep.
You either do that or NSW States before Nationals, then Trials.
She is swimming very well considering that her early cycle was pretty rough.
That was a pretty swift 100 fly (56.38) from Max Cunningham. Looks like #4 in the 14 yo age rankings.
Big breakthrough for 16 yo Josh Conias with 50.29 in the 100 free (looks like his previous best was 52.43)
I reckon Barclay will join the 54 club (100 free) sometime this season.
Woodward or bust in 100 back?
Looks like it. All our hopes are him to produce a 52
Enoch Robb might be a candidate for the 100 back based position on his 200 pb tonight and age wise big drops are not unexpected
True. He’d only need to drop 1.1 seconds to be our fastest right now
He dropped over three seconds last season so 1.1 seconds should be EASY.
Cooper scratched the 100 back final 🙄 Larkin doesn’t seem to be making progress at all.
Putting all his eggs in the 50 free basket. Dangerous strategy with 1 of the 2 spots almost a lock…
Kaylee during interview “Hard to back up after a 200 free but I’m looking to do a few doubles next year so it’s good to practise here”.
Her only possible doubles come if she swims the 2IM and/or 4×200 relay. I take this as confirmation she’s at least doing the IM, possibly going for the relay too.
100% going for 4×200 even if it’s prelims it’s almost guaranteed gold to add to her collection.
The timing is terrible for her. After 200 back semi, the day before she has to swim 2IM heat, 2 back final and 2IM semi.
I guess she can see how she feels but it seems like it might be too much to handle on top of her already packed schedule
Agree that she should only really be a contingency resource for 4×200. If it were the case that she was a “must have” for the peak/finals quartet, that’s another matter but she realistically is not. Ditto Titmus swimming 4×100.
Another 57 for Kaylee (57.79), another small PB for Anderson (59.43) and Mollie can’t swim straight.
Lol did she literally hit the lane line?
Mollie probably swam 102m with how much she swerved, also casual 29.41 backend for Kaylee.