SWIMMING AUSTRALIA HIGH-PERFORMANCE INVITATIONAL
- April 6th – April 9th
- Miami Aquatic Centre, Queensland
- LCM (50m)
- Results – Meet Mobile: Swimming Aus High Performance Invitational
While competing on day one of the Swimming Australia High-Performance Invitational, an exclusive meet inserted onto the Aussie racing calendar, 20-year-old Kaylee McKeown ripped a near-lifetime best in the women’s 400m IM.
Stopping the clock in a super quick 4:34.96, McKeown owned the race from start to finish, beating her peers by over 15 seconds en route to topping the podium. Splits are not available at the time of publishing.
McKeown first laid the groundwork with a morning swim of 4:44.77 in the heats to land lane 4 before hacking nearly another 10 seconds off for her 4:34.96 outing.
The Griffith swimmer’s lifetime best in this 4IM rests at the 4:32.73 logged at the Queensland Championships in December of 2020. That performance rendered her as Australia’s 2nd fastest performer ever sitting only behind Olympic icon Stephanie Rice, whose time of 4:29.45 from the 2008 Games in Beijing remains as the Aussie national record.
Had it not been for Canadian 15-year-old Summer McIntosh’s 4:29.12 national record-setting swim earlier this year, McKeown would top the world rankings with her result here tonight in Queensland.
However, McKeown’s 4:34.96 now ranks as the 7th fastest performance of all time by an Australian woman.
Top LCM 400 IM Performances All Time by Australian Women
- Stephanie Rice, 4:29.45, 2008
- Stephanie Rice, 4:32.29, 2009
- Kaylee McKeown, 4:32.73 2020
- Stephanie Rice, 4:33.45 2012
- Stephanie Rice, 4:34.23 2011
- Stephanie Rice, 4:34.62, 2009
- Kaylee McKeown, 4:34.96, 2022
On day two, McKeown was also the top woman in the 100m backstroke, producing a head-turning 58.66 for the win. That beat out runner-up Minna Atherton, who touched well behind in 1:01.52 for silver.
McKeown has already been as fast as 58.31 in 2022, a mark she logged at the Victorian Open in January. She, Canada’s Kylie Masse (58.48) and Claire Curzan of the United States (58.94) own the only sub-59 second 100m backstroke times thus far in this calendar year.
In other events, the women’s 100m freestyle saw two-time Olympian Madi Wilson climb atop the podium, producing a solid time of 53.91.
The 27-year-old Marion swimmer was the only female under 54 seconds, while a notable racer placed 2nd in Meg Harris. Harris snagged silver here in 54.04 in what we believe is her first race back after time away due to an incident earlier this year.
It was just this past January that the Olympic medalist Harris hurt her arm while riding a scooter, rendering her out of the pool to tend to the injury.
She owns a lifetime best of 52.92 in this women’s 100m free, although the 54.04 she logged here at this invitational checks in the 5th fastest time of her career. In her Olympic debut in Tokyo, Harris swam the second leg on the Australian women’s 4×100m free relay. She split 53.09 as part of a gold medal and World Record-setting performance for the relay.
Her performance here is a very good sign the now-Peter Bishop-trained athlete is nearly back to form and just in time for the World Championships Trials.
Additional Winners
- Rackley’s Sam Short took the men’s 400m free in a time of 3:50.47 while Bowen Gough got it done for gold in the men’s 200m fly in 1:57.77.
- The women’s 100m breast saw a duel between 20-year-old Olympian Chelsea Hodges and Jenna Strauch, with the former coming out on top in 1:07.29 to the latter’s 1:07.63.
- No man dipped under 49 seconds in the 100m free, with William Yang leading the way in 49.33 followed by Zac Incerti‘s 49.55. Matt Temple was next in 49.59 while pop singing star Cody Simpson was just over the threshold in 50.09.
- Short course world record holder Minna Atherton was in action, reaping the top spot in the women’s 200m back in 2:11.83.
- Olympic champion in the 200m breast, Zac Stubblety-Cook, posted 1:00.31 to take the men’s 100m breaststroke.
- On day two here in Queensland, Harris snagged the 50m free gold in 25.41.
What has happen to Atherton?
what’s kaylee’s big sis up to nowadays?
I think she swam the 200 breast yesterday.
Curzan went 58.73 at the most recent Pro Swim Series meet.
It is pretty remarkable that McIntosh’ time is the fastest in the world by nearly *6* seconds. I don’t see McKeown racing this one in Budapest… though she’d be happy to tack on the 200 IM and go for a triple gold. Is that what Aussies expect, too?
Simpson at 50.0 is pretty damn good. Will be interesting to see what he can go in the fly and free at trials
He was 50.22 at last year’s Trials so not really a major step albeit we cannot be sure of his exact status re conditioning/training.
As for prospects of making a team: World (even though likely to be a significantly weaker than usual) = 0. Comm Games …… his mostly likely avenues would be via 100fly or (a rough chance) of making 4×100 relay. To be in the frame for either he would need to drop at least a second over 100free and the best part of a second in 100fly. Not impossible but even with key absentees; he’s quite some way back in the seedings.
Any results from day 2 swimming?
Day 2 highlights included on here
Ok thanks,
Results on Meet Mobile. Meet is called Swimming Aus High Performance Invitational.
Kylie Masse also posted sub-59 swims this week in the 100 back