3 Big Things From Day One of the 2016 Australian Championships

The Return of Blair Evans

Blair Evans made her debut on the Australian national team in 2009 where she competed in the 800 freestyle at the World Championships in Rome as an 18 year old. The next year she went on to win bronze in both the 200 and 400 freestyle as well as a silver in the 4 x 200 freestyle relay at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine. That same year she was also part of the Australian 4 x 200 freestyle relay that took gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

In 2011 she was once again part of a 4 x 200 freestyle relay team that stood on the podium, this time winning the silver at the World Championships in Shanghai. In 2012 she competed at the Olympic Games in the 400 IM placing 13th.

After three years on the Australian national team Evans went through a string of injuries and coaching changes, which left her far from being at her best and has not represented Australia at a major international competition since the London Olympics.

That is until Rio.

Today Evans made her return to the Australian national team winning the women’s 400 IM in a lifetime best time of 4:35.26 almost three seconds under the Australian Olympic qualifying time.

The Bounce Back of Thomas Fraser-Holmes

At the end of the the 2013-2014 season Thomas Fraser-Holmes was seen as a young swimmer on the rise. He was coming off of a summer where he won gold in the 200 freestyle at both the Commonwealth Games and the Pan Pacific Championships along with a Commonwealth silver in the 400 IM.

He had recorded the world’s fastest time in the 200 freestyle (1:45.08) and set a new Australian record in the 400 IM (4:10.14).

The 2014-15 season did not go as well. He finished the year with the 18th fastest time in the 200 freestyle (1:46.83) and had a season’s best in the 400 IM that was over three seconds slower than the Australian record he had set the year before. Fraser-Holmes did compete at the World Championships in both the 200 and 400 IM, but did not reach the final in either event. What added insult to injury was that his time in the 200 freestyle from the previous summer was faster than James Guy‘s winning time of 1:45.14.

Tonight’s win in the 400 IM was not back to the standards he set for himself in the summer of 2014, but it is getting close. Fraser-Holmes won the event in a time of 4:11.09, less than a second off his Australian record and a time that places him second in the world rankings.

Horton Healthy and Ready to Take on the World

Mack Horton had an amazing 2015 Australian Championships. The 18 year old won the 400 freestyle in a time of 3:42.84, the 800 freestyle in a time of 7:51.85 and the 1500 freestyle in a time of 14:44.09. If he would have been able to duplicate his times from the Australian Championships in Kazan he would have earned a silver in the 400 freestyle and a bronze in the 1500 freestyle, but that was not the case.

At the World Championships Horton took the bronze in the 800 freestyle, but missed the final in both the 400 and 1500 freestyle. It was later discovered that Horton had suffered from the microscopic parasite, Blastocystis hominis. Based on the timing, Horton either contracted the bug at the team’s staging camp in Doha, or upon arrival in Kazan.

After his performance on the first night of the 2016 Australian Championships it looks like Horton is healthy and ready to take on the world. The 19 year old won the 400 freestyle in a time of 3:41.65, which is the second fastest time ever swum by an Australian male.