Courtesy: Stephen Thomas
A casual comment to Australian sprint king Cameron McEvoy after the pre-meet press conference for the recent Australia versus a World team about having raced at a Masters SCM meet at this pool recently triggered his interest.
“You know I’m 31 now and eligible to swim in Masters competition,” McEvoy said. “They have 25m events in all strokes in short course events in Australia, so I was thinking about giving it a go.”
As it happens, next year, the Australian Masters Swimming Championships will be held at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre in SCM from April 28th to May 3rd. However, World Aquatics does not recognize 25m distances as world records in Masters, either.
McEvoy posted a blistering time of 9.36 seconds in a time trial at the Australian Short Course Championships in October, although 25m races are not officially recorded in Australia or recognized by World Aquatics. It was a little surprising that McEvoy didn’t swim the 50m freestyle at the time. His best time of 20.75 was posted way back in November 2015. The Australian Record is now held by Kyle Chalmers at 20.68 in 2021.
As a guide for McEvoy next year in Brisbane, the current Australian National Masters record for 30-34-year-old men, over 25m freestyle, stands at 10.78, and the 50m at 23.21.
On race night at this special one-off event, McEvoy was the fastest man in every round of the 25m free, though official times were NOT published. He even managed to anchor the Aussies to a finger-tip win in the mixed medley 4x50m relay, making up a gap of around five meters on Dutch women’s 100m world champion Marrit Steenbergen. It was the first time McEvoy had swam a short course 50m freestyle in a number of years! Could he possibly go under the open world record time in Masters competition?
You only live once. Lets see how many elite athletes we can muster for the Australian masters swimming championships in Brisbane. Come on Meg,Shayna, Molly. Have some fun, the coaches can use it! There will be more Australia vs the World formats in the future!
What a wonderful move by the professor. A genuine, solid, love for swimming. It will generate a great buzz around the pool, can’t wait to watch him swim at a masters meet, thankfully in a younger age group than me! I saw him training down at our local pool in Manly a few years back, lovely chap.
World records loading…
In Australia v the World, don’t you mean NO official times were published?
it was corrected
25m in every stroke. Plus 4×25 relays. Come join us 🙂
https://nats2026.mastersswimmingqld.org.au/
Steve, could this be a watershed? I feel that my comments might be appreciated in that I have held multiple Masters World Records and have competed at 11 World Championships.
Over the 32 years I have swum for Manly Masters we have had promotional swims by elite swimmers but NEVER had a regular competitor. That is beyond comprehension considering that they profess to love swimming.
I continually break records at the age of 88. I swim 3 times a week for 1 to 1.5 km. I just love it.
so…. What a wonderful thing it would be to welcome Cam and his mates to Masters. To love watching him and to learn from him is beyond belief.
bring it on!
I agree!
Love this
Not me thinking he also joined the enhanced games, thank goodness it’s just this
Just wajt
NO!!