Aussie Sam Williamson Posts 27.08 50 Breast At Vic Open After Knee Injury Hiatus

2026 VICTORIAN OPEN LC CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, February 13th – Sunday, February 15th
• Melbourne Sports Centres (MSAC) Outdoor Pool
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheet
• SwimSwam Preview
• Live Results

The 2026 Victorian Open Long Course Championships kicked off today at the Melbourne Sports Centres (MSAC) outdoor pool.

Although not a qualifying competition, this 3-day affair is an important benchmark on the way to the all-important Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships selection meet, the 2026 Australian Swimming Trials on the calendar for June 7th – June 13th in Sydney.

Visiting Kiwi Olympian Lewis Clareburt made his presence known early, firing off a time of 1:56.30 to take the men’s 200m butterfly by a decisive margin.

The 26-year-old swimmer split 25.87/28.97 (54.84)/30.56/30.90 to get to the wall over two seconds ahead of the field.

Nunawading teammate William Petric was next to touch in 1:58.42, while Marion Olympic finalist Matt Temple clocked the same 1:58.42 time as the co-runner-up in the race.

As for Clareburt, the Commonwealth Games champion in this event owns a lifetime best of 1:55.24 from finishing 10th at the 2025 World Championshps, although tonight’s outing represents the 8th-best result of his career.

In our preview, we indicated that Clareburt had apparently changed training bases from his native New Zealand to Australia. The athlete confirmed this to SwimSwam, saying he has moved to Melbourne in what he calls ‘a southern hemisphere IM training squad.’ He is under the tutelage of Jol Finck with Petric as training partner.

“It’s an exciting time to be able to put some of the best IMers from this side of the world together to see what we can do”, Clareburt said.

“Especially under the guidance of Jol who has been a testament to putting this squad together, along with Swimming NZL and coach Mitch Nairn for supporting me coming here.”

28-year-old Sam Williamson of the host country dove in for the men’s 50m breaststroke in his first performance since dropping out of last year’s Australian Trials due to a knee injury.

The ace put up a solid morning swim of 27.08 followed by another impressive result of 27.15 in the final to claim gold in the event in which he is the Aussie national record holder. That PB of 26.32 was established at the 2024 World Championships in Doha.

Tonight, he was nearly a second ahead of the pack, with Bendigo East’s Cameron Jordan snagging silver in 27.95 and Melbourne’s Felix Dressel-de Bruyn bagging the bronze in 28.08.

Williamson sits just outside the list of top 5 performers in the world on the season.

Finally, on the men’s side, Olympian Isaac Cooper got it done for gold in the 50m backstroke, producing a mark of 25.09, although he raced as an exhibition swimmer.

That was after an even speedier morning swim of 24.89 to rank as the #2 Aussie this season. Only teenager Henry Allan has turned in a faster time, owning an outing of 24.65 from December’s U.S. Open Championshps to rank 3rd in the world at the moment.

Japan’s Riku Matsuyama was next to the wall in 25.36 and Jack Morrow, Cooper’s St. Andrew’s teammate, rounded out the top three in 25.92.

World champion and Olympic finalist Erika Fairweather of New Zealand was a highlight on the women’s side of the house, turning in a time of 8:25.39 to establish a new Vic Open competition record.

The 22-year-old easily cleared her competitors, with Molly Walker representing the next-closest athlete in 8:36.11 followed by Tea Tree Gully’s Brittany Castelluzzo who notched 8:42.72 as the bronze medalist.

Fairweather’s performance renders her the 4th-best swimmer in the world, sitting only behind American icon Katie Ledecky, Aussie Olympian Lani Pallister and China’s dynamo Li Bingjie.

Versatile Castelluzzo also tried the 100m freestyle on for size, ripping a winning time of 54.30 as the sole swimmer to dip under the 55-second barrier.

Castelluzzo split 26.47/27.83 to register the best time of her career. Entering this competition, Castelluzzo’s career-swiftest rested at the 54.49 put up in January at the South Aussie State Open Championships.

21-year-old Chloe Rowe-Hagans secured silver in 55.40 followed by Semra Olowoniyi who earned bronze in 56.95.

Additional NOtes

• Nunawading’s 20-year-old Isabella Boyd topped the women’s 50m fly podium in 26.49, narrowly defeating Rowe-Hagans’ silver medal-worthy 26.60. Also delving into sub-27-second territory was Mackenzie Burns, who reaped bronze in 26.95. Of note, Nunawading swimmer Jumanah Fahmy clocked a result of 27.77, a time which checks her in as Australia’s #2 13-year-old girl 50m fly performer of all time. According to Swimming Australia, only Lucia Lassman Chandler has been faster at that age, owning the age record at 27.13 from the 2012 Australian Championships.
• Temple raced in the 100m free also this evening, hitting 49.30 as the gold medalist. Clareburt posted 49.61 and Tigersharks’ Cameron Bladen‘s time of 49.93 garnered him the bronze medal.