2019 AUSTRALIAN WORLD SWIMMING TRIALS
- Sunday, June 9th – Friday, June 14th
- Brisbane Aquatic Centre
- LCM
- Live Results
The thrilling 6-day Australian World Swimming Trials concluded tonight in Brisbane, with a subsequent announcement by Swimming Australia of the 27 swimmers named to the roster for Gwangju. The roster is qualified as ‘initial’, as the organization’s announcement states, “possible additions in either Olympic or non-Olympic events will be decided in the next few weeks.”
However, knowing the names as they stand today, we can identify a few surprises, both good and bad, in terms of qualification for Worlds from this island nation. Below are the surprises among those who did not make the World Championships roster.
Emily Seebohm Couldn’t Find Her Groove
- The 27-year-old veteran just didn’t have it this meet, falling short in her specialty 100m and 200m backstroke events. Instead, teenagers Mina Atherton and Kaylee McKeown took the reins, relegating Seebohm to 3rd in the 200m back (2:08.58) and 4th in the 100m (1:00.29).
- Seebohm has made the Australian World Championships squads the past 12 years, so the veteran knows what it takes to get it done; something was just off for this meet and the Brisbane Grammar star just never gained traction.
- Her absence means that the world will see a new 200m backstroke world champion in Gwangju, as Seebohm has claimed the title the past 2 World Championships.
Elijah Winnington‘s Nightmare
- Winnington wound up with the bronze in the 400m free (3:48.45), but missed the main goal of Gwangju qualification. The 400m free is an event in which the 19-year-old Bond athlete took the Aussie National title just 2 months ago in the now-5th fastest time of the world in 3:44.68. This seemed to rattle Winnington who never found his footing as the meet went on.
- Despite owning the World Junior Record with his lifetime best of 1:46.13 registered at the Queensland Championships last December, Winnington clocked a mark of 1:47.86 here in the final, relegated to 8th place.
- Winnington scratched the 800m free and the 200m fly, but gritted out swims in the 50m free, 100m free and 100m fly finishing in respective places of 14th, 13th, and 13th.
- The Bond athlete won gold as a member of the men’s 4x200m free relay on the Gold Coast at last year’s Commonwealth Games, throwing down the 3rd fastest split of the entire finals field in a big-time 1:45.97.
Jack Cartwright Pulled Out of the Meet
- As we reported, Commonwealth Games gold medalist Cartwright had all but withdrawn from the Australian World Swimming Trials, having only entered arbitrarily in the 1500m free.
- His St. Peters Western coaching staff confirmed to swimSwam that the 20-year-old had been struggling with shoulder pain for some time and is currently swimming as part of rehab, following a cautious plan to keep him healthy for his journey to Tokyo 2020.
Taylor McKeown Misses the Mark
- McKeown was an Olympic finalist in Rio in the women’s 200m breast, but fell short at these Championships, with no woman making the grade.
- The 24-year-old Griffith University athlete hit a time of 2:24.95, over a second outside the 2:23.81 QT.
- McKeown did improve upon her previous season-best of 2:27.65 from the Sydney Open last month, but still has some work to do to get back to her 2:21/2:22 days.
There are always periods of transition, like after the Thorpe/ Hackett Era (the men for example won ZERO individual events at the home Commonwealth Games in 2006). The US has had a few blips too in its time.
My beef has always been and will continue to be the selection times. 12 months out from Olympics and taking a team of 27 with one rookie…? Trials are 5 weeks out from the meet, why not Encourage racing and take two under FINA A times. Give as many swimmers as possible the opportunity to compete internationally. There are swimmers left at home who hit FINA A and finished top 2 and won’t go. Historically Australia has alway had outliers who step up at the major event. In recent times we don’t even take anyone who they don’t expect to make finals….and that doesn’t have a great success rate….
Whilst I’m at it….Olympics is now the only meet that doesn’t… Read more »
Noooo, this mayhem can not justify that the glory days are gone for Aussie swimming. I mean, it probably seemed like team selection wasn’t such a big issue in the past but I guess it was because every event had their one or two standout performers. But we’ve now hit the period where the young guns are emerging and who we once thought were the standouts are now being tested. This doesn’t make Aussie swimming any worse than it is. In fact, it makes it better, knowing that there are so many great swimmer in each race. This is what causes the mayhem.
We have too many good swimmers and only limited spots in the team.
Can anyone confirm which events Brad Woodward & Mack Horton qualified in? Seems as if neither cut the mustard, but have friends in high places?
Woodward was 3rd in the 100 back, outside FINA A time. Yang was second but I’m pretty sure has committed to world uni games and therefore unavailable for selection. Woodward was 2nd in the 200 and under FINA A so I guess they want him as a back up relay swimmer….likely no use of Larkin goes down but I suppose they could field a team.
Horton was under FINA A in the 400, 5th in the 200. And as Olympic champion, probably deserves his spot.
@mikeindallas What is your viewpoint on the proposed mayhem? Can you please elaborate?
Just generally across the board, I’m not sure if having trials 5 weeks out of World Champs is the best idea for Australia. It might work for the US and other countries but I think there is no one size fits all.
This year, Australia has done it quite differently. We had the ‘Australian Swimming Championships’ in April, where it was broadcasted on TV. Then the trials were a whole separate thing. For someone who’s followed Australian swimming for a very long time, this initially confused me a little.
It probably would have been a shake up for swimmers themselves, and they each would have taken a different approach in their preparation for the two. For example, Winnington probably… Read more »
They also had trials close to Pan PACs last year . I just wish they’d combine it all into one event
BlueCheese, they did something similar last year. Due to CG being at the usual time for Nationals, they moved them to Feb and then had a selection meet around this time last year for Pan Pacs.
The old system wasn’t really working. The number of AUS swimmers who DON’T need to peak for selection meets can generally be easily counted on one hand and the gap between Nationals/selection meet in Apr and the major intl meet (usually in the Jul/Aug/Sep bracket) is such that swimmers need tp have another prep then taper. Its been the case that maybe half the team/sometimes more have failed to manage this.
However Swimming AUS, rather than making a clean break and having the AUS… Read more »
Sheds some light on Seebohms performance:
https://au.sports.yahoo.com/emily-seebohm-shock-result-national-swimming-trials-211458732.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS5hdS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALQ_yOHBqiS-YjjN7pBlfRfYcdlMmppeMPfQfJcRaOugk2_ZxXBrfnybyAwCeYBKIl84GgQt_RoRmmtvEVvFPFuMU4LaRvm_P4hvpRiXwmMmmVgEuT-sye7fBjUCvt91TM15nSHF7oJOGbImSJT22l_STrDiB2TXNcmPbVwxUdSG
I just realised last night that Seebohm was at the Gwangju not long ago after watching Michael Andrew’s Vlogs. I didn’t know that she got food poisoning there but I already expected that she definitely wasn’t feeling 100%, especially after recovering from a busy time there.
Meanwhile Atherton actually tapered for the trials, at least according to what she said at the interview after the 200 back. It’s not that I think that she wouldn’t do well at Worlds, I have faith that her and McKeown can pull out amazing performances and have super bright futures ahead of them!
Grant Irvine as well .. (51.00 PB in Budapest wc 2017)
Irvine is a bit unfortunate. He wasn’t far off QT in both 100 & 200 and had he finished 2nd in the 100, his selection would’ve been near automatic (ostensibly as fly back-up for 4XMED but in reality swimming both 100 & 200) but unfortunately Temple finished ahead of him in the 100 and therefore undermined his case.