Shayna Jack Beats Titmus, O’Callaghan En Route To Lifetime Best

2022 NEW SOUTH WALES STATE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, March 4th – Sunday, March 6th
• Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Start Lists
• Results – Meet Mobile: 2022 NSW State Open Championships
• Live Web Results

Big-time talent was in the water on day one of the 2022 New South Wales State Open Championships, with Olympic gold medalists Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown and Elijah Winnington among them.

For multi-faceted talent McKeown, the 21-year-old already got off to a flying start this calendar year, busting out a monster 2:04.64 in the 200m backstroke at last month’s Victorian Open.

The Griffith swimmer took on the same event here in Sydney, producing another stellar time of 2:05.85. Beautifully splitting 1:02.62/1:03.23, McKeown beat the field by over 5 seconds, with the next closest competitor,17-year-old Mollie O’Callaghan, posting a time of 2:10.91 as the runner-up.

For McKeown, her 2:05.85 tonight checks in as the Tokyo gold medalists’ 11th fastest performance of her young career.

As for Titmus, the reigning 400m freestyle gold medalist raced the much shorter 100m free to kick off her campaign here. The Dean Boxall-trained star fell short of the podium, however, placing 4th with a mark of 54.53.

Reaping gold was Shayna Jack, also of St. Peters Western and training under Boxall. Jack ripped a winning effort of 53.13 to defeat the aforementioned runner-up tonight O’Callaghan, as well as two-time Olympian Madi Wilson. O’Callaghan clocked 53.67 while Wilson was only .01 behind in 53.68.

Jack’s outing here represents a new lifetime best, shaving .05 off her previous PB of 53.18 she registered back in 2019 before she tested positive for Ligandrol and was forced out of that year’s World Championships. She has just returned to racing last December and has been racking up the meters, including at the Queensland Championships where she neared her career-quickest in the sprint freestyle events.

Splits for Jack’s performance tonight included 25.69/27.44 to top the podium and put her hat in the ring for someone to beat for 2022 Budapest World Championships roster spots in this event, as well as relays. Jack remains as Australia’s 8th fastest woman all-time in this 100m free.

Additional Winners:

• St. Peters Western’s Elijah Winnington clocked 3:47.05 to take the men’s 400m free in the only sub-3:50 time of the field. He led a trio of Olympians in Brendon Smith and Mack Horton who touched in 3:50.56 and 3:52.81, respectively.
• USC Spartan Brianna Throssell got it done for gold in the women’s 50m fly, earning the win in 26.24, while Bowen Gough earned the 200m fly win for the men in 1:57.70.
• The women’s 100m breast saw Chelsea Hodges get to the wall first in 1:07.23, while Joshua Yong clipped Matt Wilson for the 50m breast win. Yong touched in 27.89 to Wilson’s 28.18.
• The men’s 100m free was on the sluggish side, with no one getting under 49 seconds. Marions’ Zac Incerti was the quickest in 49.52 while Matt Temple was next in 49.87.
• Jenna Forrester logged the 4th fastest 400m IM outing of her career, registering 4:41.81 for the victory here tonight.
• Mitch Larkin was the fastest 50m backstroke, logging 25.48 for the gold.