Kaylee McKeown Hits Fastest 50 Back Time Of Her Career

2021 SOUTH AUSTRALIA STATE OPEN & MC C’SHIPS

• Friday, January 22nd – Sunday, January 24th
• SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre, Oaklands Park, South Australia
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Preview
• Entries/Live Results

On-fire Kaylee McKeown of Australia was back in the water tonight, competing on day 1 of the 2021 South Aussie State Open Championships.

The versatile 19-year-old wasted no time making her presence known at the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre, posting the fastest time of her career in the women’s 50m back.

After putting up a time of 27.75 to lead the women’s 50m back heats, the USC Spartan dipped down to a new PB of 27.38 to reap gold in the final. That was enough to edge out Madi Wilson and her runner-up outing of 28.01, as well as log a new South Aussie All Comers Record.

Entering this meet, McKeown’s 50m back PB rested at the 27.57 she threw down at the NSW Championships in March of 2019. Before that, the younger sister of Olympian Taylor McKeown had been as quick as the 27.65 she produced at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju.

As such, McKeown’s 27.38 mark here hacked .19 off of her previous career-quickest and falls just .01 outside of Emily Seebohm’s 27.37 Aussie national record.

McKeown now becomes the 12th fastest woman all-time worldwide in this event, as well as the 2nd fastest woman in the world this season.

Just one event later, McKeown dove back in to contest the 200m breast. An off-event for McKeown, she is most likely taking on these back-to-back type schedules to test her fitness and under-stress performances with a potentially multi-event schedule on her agenda for her nation’s Olympic Trials.

McKeown split 1:12.19/1:15.02 en route to taking the 2breast tonight in a final result of 2:27.21. This represents the fastest time of her young career and her first venture under the 2:30 barrier. Entering this meet her PB rested at the 2:31.42 notched in 2019.

World Championships finalist Matthew Temple was another dual-event winner tonight, with the fly ace taking the 200m distance of that discipline in a mark of 1:58.49. He also topped the men’s 50 free field in 22.75.

Additional Winners:

• Kalani Ireland topped Travis Mahoney in the men’s edition of the 50m back, with the former hitting 26.71 to the latter’s 26.96.
• The men’s 100m breast saw Olympian Jake Packard produce a time of 1:01.26 for gold.
• Madi Wilson snagged another silver behind her 50m back with a runner-up finish in the 400m free. She logged 4:12.54 to touch just behind winner Phoebe Hines of USC. The pair beat the rest of the field by over 10 seconds.
• Wilson wound up on top in the 50m free event to complete a trifecta of racing, snagging the top prize in 25.08.