2025 AUSTRALIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, October 1st – Friday, October 3rd
- Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Final Start List
- SwimSwam Preview
- Live Results
The 2025 Australian Short Course Championships kicked off today, Wednesday, October 1st, from the Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre.
Although the entries are on the lighter side than in years past, we’re slated to see Olympians Sam Short, Matt Temple and Cameron McEvoy take to the pool over the course of the three-day competition.
22-year-old Olympian Short took on the 400m free to kick off his campaign, reaping gold in a time of 3:36.12.
That handily defeated the field, as the next-closest competitor was 21-year-old William Petric of St. Peters Western, who touched in 3:43.65, followed by 22-year-old Thomas Hauck, who rounded out the podium in 3:45.59.
As for Short, his previous personal best, according to the Swimming Australia results database, rested at the 3:41.81 put up in 2020.
With tonight’s outing, however, Short now ranks fourth among Australia’s all-time 400m freestyle performers.
Top 5 Australian Men’s SCM 400 Free Performers All-Time
- Grant Hackett – 3:34.58, 2002
- Ian Thorpe – 3:34.63, 2003
- Tommy Neill – 3:35.05, 2022
- Sam Short – 3:36.12, 2025
- Elijah Winnington – 3:37.45, 2020
Visiting Japanese ace Mizuki Hirai made her presence known in the women’s 50m back.
The 18-year-old University of Tennessee commit fired off a time of 26.39 as the top performer and one of two sub-27-second swimmers in the field.
Joining her under the barrier was 18-year-old Mackenzie Burns, hitting 26.68 as the runner-up.
Korean Kim Seungwon, just 15 years of age, posted 27.15, good enough for bronze.
Hirai’s outing was within striking distance of her personal best mark of 26.23 from the 2024 Short Course World Championships, a time that ranks her as Japan’s fourth-best performer in history.
Hirai’s second event of the night came in the women’s 50m free, where she claimed the victory once again.
After a speedy 24.99 morning swim, Hirai clinched gold in 24.84, only .01 ahead of Sienna Walo who settled for silver in 24.85.
Lucy Dring was right in the mix as well, a fingernail out of silver in 24.87.
Marion Olympian Temple was also in the water this evening, showing off his prowess in the men’s 100m butterfly.
The 26-year-old was too quick to catch, ripping a performance of 49.83 as the sole competitor of the pack to delve into sub-50-second territory.
Temple opened in 23.20 and closed in 26.63 to get the job done. His lifetime best remains at the 48.62 put on the books at the 2024 SASI Time Trial. Temple earned the bronze in this event at the 2024 Short Course World Championships, posting a time of 48.71 in Budapest.
Tonight Nunawading swimmer Callum Halloran-Lavelle snagged the silver in 52.18 followed by Lucas Humeniuk‘s effort of 52.26 to land on the podium in third place.
Korea earned another medal this evening, courtesy of 30-year-old Lee Juho in the men’s 200m backstroke.
The seasoned Olympian stopped the clock at 1:51.24, splitting 26.31/28.41/28.32/28.20 in the process.
That established a new national record, erasing his own previous Korean benchmark of 1:52.85 logged during the 2024 World Cup.
St. Peters Western’s Matt Magnussen chased Lee to the wall but wound up nearly 2 seconds behind in 1:53.14 as Will Sharp bagged the bronze in 1:55.19.
24-year-old Brittany Castelluzzo earned the top spot in the women’s 100m IM, producing the sole outing of the final under 1:00.
Castelluzzo hit 59.72 to beat Nunawading’s Isabella Boyd by nearly a second. Boyd secured silver in 1:00.65 as Bond’s Emma Doherty collected the bronze in 1:01.09.
According to the Swimming Australia results database, this represents the first time Tea Tree Gully’s Castelluzzo has raced the SCM 100 IM since 2016.
Additional Winners
- The women’s 400m free saw 20-year-old Molly Walker touch first in a time of 4:06.92, beating the field by well over 4 seconds. That’s a monster effort from the Southern Performance athlete, whose previous PB rested at the 4:16.17 notched in 2021. Sarah Locke was the silver medalist tonight in 4:11.44 and Adriana Fydler earned the bronze in 4:14.15.
- Dring posted an effort of 2:06.77 to easily reap the gold in the women’s 200m fly. Amber Clark finished well behind in 2:13.61 to earn silver and Mia Yeo rounded out the podium in 2:14.20. For USC Spartan Dring, tonight’s performance represented her first-ever foray under the 2:10 barrier. She ripped her previous career-swiftest time of 2:10.81 to shreds this evening.
- 17-year-old Amelie Smith got the job done in the women’s 200m breaststroke, albeit by a narrow margin ahead of runner-up Tilly King. Smith sneaked to the wall first in 2:24.75 as Bond’s King was a hair behind in 2:24.89. Alannah Torrance produced 2:25.79 for bronze. Smith now ranks as Australia’s seventh-quickest 17-year-old in this event.
- Korea’s Sung Jae Cho hit a result of 58.65 to take the men’s 100m breaststroke, with James McKechnie logging 59.25 for silver. Taking on his second event of the night, Petric earned bronze in 59.46.
- Ji Yuchan of Korea found success in the men’s 50m free, turning in a time of 21.08. That was just .28 off his national record of 20.80 first registered during the 2024 World Cup, then matched during last year’s Short Course World Championships. That best-ever performance also represents the reigning Asian record in the event. James Ward was tonight’s runner-up in 21.68 and Kai Taylor earned bronze in 21.79. Of note, Olympic champion McEvoy is only racing the exhibition 25m freestyle event at this competition.
McEvoy 9.37 seconds in the 25 free heat. Great start as expected.
And 9.36 in final . They said 9.35 is the fastest ever.
Sorry 9.36 is the fastest apparently
Why do the top Australian swimmers hate racing so much? Why the Americans do so well is because most of them are racing every week in the college system. I hope all the top (& some up and comer) Aussies are planning to do the World Cup circuit. They need to get race hardened.
Someone like Ariane Titmus thinks she can get back and beat McIntosh and Ledecky after so long out of the water.
They need to be at every competition up to LA.
A lot of the big Aussie names are doing World Cups which is why a lot of them aren’t there. McKeown, MOC, Pallister, Short (although he is at this meet) all definitely doing all 3 world cups. I assume a bunch more we haven’t heard of yet since entries aren’t out…
Chalmers and McEvoy both have little babies so understandably aren’t competing
Has McEvoy done SC before?
Doing the World cup circuit is expensive. Only some get funded.
Many swimmers don’t swim a lot of meets once they’ve finished college by the way.
Marchand is doing a total of 6 meets this year.
Titmus keeps proving everyone wrong after having breaks so we will see how she goes this time.
McKeown won 2 gold this year after a break.
Kaylee races a lot. But Titmus doesn’t. It may have worked for Ariarne so far, but I can’t see how she beats Summer in the future without more actual racing.
I’m not sure if I’d say Kaylee races a lot but it depends on the definition of a lot. But definitely more than the St Peters swimmers who notoriously don’t enter competitions. So I’m surprised Taylor and Petric are at this meet.
It’s kinda crazy that we operate in a sport where we’re surprised when swimmers show up at a meet that we call a “national championship.”
The short course Champs every odd year (a non selection meet) are not that well attended. Often the big names are just getting back in the water after the “summer” long course big meet. Remember that the long course World Champs are held in the Australian winter which is also Australian short course season.
apart of that stretch of october-february from 12 months ago, her post covid years have consisted of sa/vic states, nsw states, nationals, sydney open, trials, sc nationals/world cup, alongside olympics/worlds (and comm games, sc worlds and duel in the pool for 2022). that only looks sparse if your benchmark is hosszu from a decade ago
She didn’t do Sydney Open in 2024 or 2025 and not SA states I think. But I get your point.
Neill went 3.35.05 in 2022. So Short is 4th overall.
Tommy Neill went 3:35.05 at the short course worlds in 2022, so Shorts time is 4th all time
-Tom Neill swam 3.35.05 in 2022 so Short is 4th Australian all time, not 3rd. Short mentioned it in his interview too.
-Hauck swam the 200 back final 15 minutes after the 400 free final and still managed to get under 2 minutes.
-The whole finals session was delayed by 30 minutes but I’m unsure why.
-Channel 9 needs to improve the camera work. Literally missed the finish of a couple of races by focussing on one swimmer. When will these networks ever learn??????
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Temple opened in 23.20 and closed in 26.63 to get the job done, coming within range of his lifetime best of 49.32 from nearly 5 years ago. Temple earned the bronze in this event at the 2024 Short Course World Championships, posting a time of 48.71 in Budapest.”
So his lifetime best is slower than what he swam in Budapest ?
Good catch! Corrected.