2025 AUSTRALIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, October 1st – Friday, October 3rd
- Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Final Start List
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Live Results
The final night of action unfolded at the 2025 Australian Short Course Championships with Olympian Sam Short putting on a show in the men’s 800m freestyle.
22-year-old Short of Rackley powered his way to a swift time of 7:31.79, beating the field by nearly 18 seconds in the process.
His result ripped his previous personal best to shreds, a mark of 7:38.97 clocked five years ago.
Short now becomes Australia’s #2 performer of all-time, sitting only behind Grant Hackett‘s national record of 7:23.42 from 2008. Additionally, Short’s time would have captured silver at last year’s Short Course World Championships in Budapest.
Top 5 Australian Men’s SCM 800 Freestyle Performers All-Time
- Grant Hackett – 7:23.42, 2008
- Sam Short – 7:31.79, 2025
- Kieren Perkins – 7:34.90, 1993
- Elijah Winnington – 7:35.34, 2024
- Tommy Neill – 7:36.10, 2020
This morning, Short raced in the heats of the men’s 200m free where he turned in a time of 1:44.34 to capture the top seed.
He opted out of the final, which opened the door for Kai Taylor to soar to the gold.
22-year-old Taylor flew to the wall in 1:43.51, a big-time personal best and a time which inserts him just inside the list of top 25 all-time Aussie performers.
Cameron Bladen secured silver in 1:44.37 and Anders McAlpine landed on the podium in 1:44.72 as the bronze medalist.
24-year-old Brittany Castelluzzo continued her multi-event campaign, this time trying the women’s 100m fly on for size.
The Tea Tree Gully ace turned in a time of 56.81, comprised of 12.29/14.73/14.60/15.19 for splits.
That was enough to hold off 22-year-old Lucy Dring of USC Spartans who touched in 57.66, just ahead of Nunawading’s Isabella Boyd who rounded out the podium in 57.85.
For Castelluzzo, her result this evening represents the third-quickest of her career. Her personal best remains at the 56.36 logged during last year’s World Aquatics Swimming World Cup.
Dring was back in the water later on in the session, taking on the 100m freestyle event.
Dring split 12.25/13.71/14.09/14.03 to ultimately get to the wall in 54.08 for the gold. That overtook her previous PB of 54.21 from August’s Queensland SC Championships.
Sienna Walo reaped silver in 54.40 and Semra Olowoniyi earned bronze in 54.65.
Following up on his 100m fly victory, 26-year-old Olympian Matt Temple got the job done in the 50m fly tonight.
Temple posted a victorious effort of 22.98 to clear the 23-second barrier, holding a healthy advantage over Jackson Govers who earned runner-up honors in 23.59.
William Layton also landed on the podium in 23.64, good enough for bronze.
20-year-old Bond ace Tilly King made her presence known in the women’s 50m breast.
She reaped the top spot in a speedy 30.78, holding off Walo by a narrow margin. Walo settled for silver only .07 behind in 30.85 and Emily Daunt, just 15 years of age, produced 31.42 as the bronze medalist.
The women’s 200m IM saw Tara Kinder of Melbourne Vicentre collect the gold in 2:07.42
According to the Swimming Australia results database, Kinder’s former lifetime best checked in at 2:11.50 from 2019 so she tore that mark to shreds with tonight’s performance.
17-year-old Amelie Smith of Rock City was tonight’s silver medalist in 2:10.39 to become the 4th-swiftest Aussie girl of her age in history.
Castelluzzo hauled another piece of hardware with a bronze medal-worthy 2:12.49 effort.
Additional Winners
- 20-year-old Molly Walker topped the women’s 1500m free podium, posting a time of 16:01.38. That was far and away the best performance, as Smith was next to the wall over 16 seconds later in 16:17.78. Sienna Deurloo was next in line at 16:45.76.
- The women’s 200m back saw Nunawading’s Abbey Kearney clear the field in 2:08.47, albeit by a narrow margin. Charlotte Hinze was a hair behind in 2:08.60 as Adriana Fydler was also right in the mix with a bronze medal-worthy result of 2:08.62. That’s a shiny new PB for Kearney, erasing her former mark of 2:09.34 from just this past August.
- Matthew Magnussen got it done for gold in the men’s 100m back, registering 52.88 as the sole competitor to delve under the 53-second barrier. Lucas Humeniuk snagged silver in 53.16 as Callum Halloran-Lavelle bagged bronze in 53.51.
- The men’s 200m breast saw 24-year-old Jackson Abeya put up a winning result of 2:08.44, with 16-year-old Leny Grigor just over half a second behind in 2:09.05. Caio Gallo posted 2:09.61 for bronze with the only other sub-2:10 performance. Grigor’s 2:09.05 time appears to rank the teen as the #2 performer of all-time for 16-year-old boys in this event. Olympian Matt Wilson owns the National Age Record with his 2:06.50 from 2015.
I wonder what Ed Somerville is up to these days ? He swam great short course times at this meet last year so I’m surprised he ditched it
harris is going to all 3 world cup stops
No she isn’t
I don’t think she’s going to any
The club Amelie Smith represents is Rocky City (Rocky being short for Rockhampton, the city the club is in). It’s not Rock City as the author keeps writing.
Delete
Once again…. almost had a heart attack before I saw it was SCM
LCM goal time
“20-year-old Bond ace Tilly King made her presence known in the women’s 50m breast”
Oh yeah, and I bet Bryan Lochte put up a world-leading time in the 100 IM too
Tilly and Bryan are dating I believe
Amelie Smith and Tom Hauck both doing crazy doubles again tonight. Smith silver in both 1500 and 200IM and Hauck silver in both 400IM and 800. Think they did similar earlier this meet too.