Temple, Castelluzzo Highlight Day One Of 2026 South Aussie Championships

2026 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN STATE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, January 16th – Sunday, January 18th
• South Australia Aquatic & Leisure Centre, Oaklands Park
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Live Results
• Livestream

The 2026 South Australian State Open Championships got underway from the South Aquatic & Leisure Centre with 26-year-old Olympian Matt Temple taking on multiple events.

The Marion ace raced in the men’s 50m freestyle and 200m fly to kick off his campaign, landing on the podium in both contests.

In the splash n’ dash, Temple put up a time of 23.56 as the fastest South Aussie, although visiting New South Wales athlete Ollie Moclair was the swiftest overall, hitting a much quicker 22.36 to get to the wall first.

Next-quickest was 18-year-old Nao Shiota of Japan, who hit the only other sub-23-second effort in 22.91.

Kent Town’s Luke Montes touched simultaneously with Temple in 23.56.

The 200m fly saw Temple clock an effort of 2:02.04, well off his career-best 1:56.40 registered in 2023.

Haku Saito of Japan, just 16 years of age, was too quick to catch, however, posting a time of 1:59.78 as the sole contestant to clear the 2:00 barrier.

25-year-old Brittany Castelluzzo of Tea Tree Gully followed Temple’s same schedule on day one, posting 25.37 to top the women’s 50m free podium.

That was enough to hold off 17-year-old Heli Childs who turned in a time of 25.78 to tie another 17-year-old Asha Ring of SOPAC who also hit 25.78.

Castelluzzo put up a mark of 4:13.07 as the 2nd-fastest 400m freestyler behind Riho Okamura of Japan who touched in 4:12.18.

Castelluzzo’s time was within three seconds of her best-ever performance of 4:10.41 established at the 2025 Japan Open last November.

Additional Notes

• 19-year-old Olympian Mio Narita was ahead of the women’s 200m breaststroke field, logging a time of 2:31.46 to get to the wall just a hair ahead of the pack. 23-year-old Reid Smith turned in the next-fastest time of 2:31.49 and 15-year-old Marion swimmer Emily Daunt posted 2:35.46 as the fastest South Aussie.
• Nunawading’s William Petric registered 1:02.02 as the top men’s 100m breaststroker, handily defeating Marion’s Harris Biddell‘s effort of 1:02.89 this evening.
• Petric also earned top honors in the 400m free, hitting 3:50.68, his fastest effort by a significant margin. Entering this competition, Petric’s fastest 400m free outing rested at the 3:56.19 put up at the 2022 NSW State Open Championships.