Kyle Chalmers Breaks Aussie Age Record in 50 Free to Open Jr Champs

2016 Georgina Hope Foundation Australian Age Swimming Championships

• March 28-April 4, 2016
• SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre, Adelaide, South Australia (GMT + 10:30)
• Monday-Friday: Heats 9AM/Finals 6PM local time
• Saturday Heats 9AM/Finals 4PM
• Sunday/Monday: Heats 10AM/Finals 4PM
• Age Groups: 12-13, 14, 15, 16, 17-18
• Long Course Meters
• Championship Central
• Live Streaming
• Live Results

As the Australian Olympic Trials loom from April 7th-14th, this week (and into next), Australia’s top age group swimmers get the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre warmed up with the 2016 Georgina Hope Foundation Australian Age Swimming Championships.

The meet features the country’s top swimmers across 5 different age groups. The headliner of the meet is Marion Swim Club’s Kyle Chalmers, who was a member of Australia’s 2015 World Championships team. The 17-year old is a local Adelaide swimmer and the future of the country’s sprinting at the senior level, and he opened the meet in the second event, the 17-18 50 free, with a new Australian Age Record of 22.15.

That breaks his own personal best of 22.19 from last year’s Junior World Championships in Singapore, which were just after his 17th birthday, and is almost as fast already as James Roberts’ 18-year olds’ record of 22.05. Chalmers now sits just outside of the country’s national all-time top 10 at any age.

Not far behind him was another 17-year old, St. Peters’ Western’s Jack Cartwright in 22.55. Both swimmers were under the winning time from last year’s meet.

Chalmers was not the only exciting swimmer in the age group on Monday evening; in the boys’ 17-18 100 breaststroke, another 17-year old, Daniel Cave from Melbourne Vicentre swam a 1:01.87, which clears Simon Cowley’s old record of 1:02.00 as the fastest ever done officially by an Australian at that age. Cave knocked two seconds from his seed time, and the result will excite Australian fans. After the retirement of Christian Sprenger in January, Australia has been left dangerously thin in the breaststrokes. That’s further evidenced by the fact that the record Cave broke was set in 1998, two generations of swimmers ago.

Matthew Wilson actually beat Cave to the record three weeks ago at the NSW Open State Championships when he went 1:01.67, but that record has not yet been recognized by Swimming Australia formally. In either case, Australia has its new “Rickard and Sprenger” heading toward Tokyo.

Cave ranks as the 6th-fastest Australian this season in the 100 breaststroke.

In the other boys’ 17-18 race, of the day, Joshua Parrish from TSS Aquatics in Southport won the 400 free in 3:49.06. That defended his title from last year, but was nearly four seconds better. He fights a long Australian distance freestyle tradition if he wants to break any age records, but the swim did move to 7th all-time in the Australian Age Rankings for 18-year olds, jumping Olympic gold medalist Daniel Kowalski. Parrish beat his next-closest competitor, Daniel Jacobson, by 6 seconds.

Other highlight victories:

• In the girls’ 12-13 200 meter freestyle, St. Peters Western swimmers went 1-2-3, with each of them coming in two-and-a-half seconds faster than the defending champion in the event. 13-year old Sharni Robinson won in 2:04.30, and was followed very closely by a pair of 12-year old teammates: Lydia Murray in 2:04.72, and Jenny Forrester in 2:04.77.
• In the girls’ 14s 200 IM Kaylee McKeown won in 2:17.46. She’s the younger sister of Australian National Teamer and 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Taylor McKeown.
• In the boys’ 100 free for 16-year olds, Cherrybrook Carlile Swimming Club’s Zachary Attard won in 50.75.
• Melbourne Vicente’s Oliver Nash won the boys 14-year olds’ 100 fly in 56.61, a second-and-a-half clear of the rest of the field.