On day 2 of the South Australian State Championships, James Magnussen scratched his only event: the 200 free. This is an event that he has dabbled with as a potential Olympic event (at least in a relay), and has said much in but shown little. His only other entry for the meet will be Sunday’s 50, a race for which there is much anticipation as a landmark for his potential in the 100.
There was no Magnussen, but the meet’s other star so far, Blair Evans, had a pair of great swims. She took the top seed in both the 200 (2:01.88) and 400 (4:12.09) freestyles. If she has the same sort of improvement that she did in the 400 IM on Friday (6 seconds) we could be lined up for some great pace-setting swims in the finals session.
In her first swim of the meet, phenom Emily Seebohm took the top seed in the women’s 50 free in 26.23. That placed her ahead of fellow 19-year old Kirstie Meertens,, who is having a very impressive meet to this point.
Meanwhile, Norwood’s Jackie Staples, already with one event title under her belt, took back-to-back top seeds in the 100 fly and 200 back (though neither in an impact time yet). Hayden Stoeckel, one of the headliners of the meet, took the top seed in his best race the 100 back in 55.0. If he can knock a comfortable second off of that in finals, it will be a very pleasing swim for him.
