2023 AUSTRALIAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TRIALS
- Tuesday, June 13th – Sunday, June 18th
- Prelims at 10 a.m. local (8 p.m. previous day EDT)/Finals at 7 p.m. local (5 a.m. EDT)
- Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Center
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships Selection Criteria
- Meet Central
- Final Start List
- Day 1 Prelims Live Recap / Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Live Recap / Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Live Recap / Day 3 Finals Live Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Live Recap / Day 4 Finals Live Recap
- Day 5 Prelims Live Recap / Day 5 Finals Live Recap
- Day 6 Prelims Live Recap / Day 6 Finals Live Recap
- Live Results
The 2023 Australian World Championships wrapped up on Sunday, so we now know the 38-strong lineup set to represent the nation in Fukuoka, Japan next month.
The six-day competition had some clear winners with a pair of teenagers in 19-year-olds Mollie O’Callaghan and Sam Short taking multiple events. At the same time, seasoned medal-reaping veterans Kaylee McKeown, Emma McKeon Ariarne Titmus and Kyle Chalmers also put up their usual caliber of solid performances to make the grade.
However, there were some unexpected misses along the way which gave the Swimming Australia coaching brain trust some tough decisions in terms of their discretionary selections.
We took a look at the roster ‘hits’ but now let’s review a few of the ‘misses’ as well as surprise inclusions on the Aussie roster for Fukuoka.
THE MISSES
26-year-old Cody Simpson entered 3 events for these Aussie Championships, the men’s 50m fly, 100m fly and 100m free, and had a viable chance of qualifying primarily in the fly races.
When the dust settled, however, the Griffith University swimmer placed 4th in the 50m fly in 23.48, 7th in the 100m free in 49.11 and 5th in the 100m fly in 52.23, thus missing out on qualification for Fukuoka.
Last year Simpson hit the 51.96 qualifying time needed for the World Championships in Budapest, placing 3rd in the event at Trials behind winner Matt Temple and runner-up Kyle Chalmers. Chalmers originally said he would be skipping Worlds but the Olympic champion wound up changing his mind, thus rendering Simpson off the team.
Simpson did, however, represent Australia at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. There in Birmingham, the pop singing star raced in the prelims of the men’s 4x100m free relay and 4x100m medley relay, helping contribute to their respective gold and silver medal outcomes. Individually, Simpson wound up 14th in the 50m fly (23.87) and 5th in the 100m fly (52.06).
Australia is rich in freestyle history on both the men’s and women’s sides, with its list of Olympic medalists including that of Mack Horton who took 400m free gold in 2016.
Although Horton has collected a few international medals since a prelims relay medal in Tokyo, including 4free bronze last year at the Commonwealth Games, the 26-year-old’s performances have struggled to keep up with the rest of the world.
In Melbourne last week, Horton logged a time of 3:46.71 to place 3rd in the men’s 400m free, while his 200m free time of 1:51.04 ranked the Griffith University swimmer well back in 22nd.
It was 19-year-old Sam Short who grabbed the gold in the 400m free while Horton’s Tokyo Olympic teammate Elijah Winnington scored the silver. Short hit 3:43.38 while Winnington was 3:43.68, so Horton was over 3 seconds out of qualification contention.
Horton was originally entered in the 800m free but wound up dropping the event and his 2free finish rendered him off any relays.
As a result, Horton has found himself off of a World Championships roster for the first time since 2013.
Joshua Edwards-Smith
Joshua Edwards-Smith may currently be ranked #1 in the world in the men’s 200m backstroke, but the Aussie will not get a chance to stake his claim on gold in Fukuoka.
While competing at the Queensland Championships last December, then-19-year-old Edwards-Smith scorched the fastest 200m backstroke performance of his career. He hit a result of 1:55.42 to knock over a second off of his previous career-quickest effort.
Come Melbourne, however, Edwards-Smith lost his groove, mustering just a 1:57.29 to place 2nd in the event behind winner Bradley Woodward who topped the podium in 1:56.04.
Swimming Australia set the Fukuoka qualification time at 1:57.12 which meant Edwards-Smith missed out by just .17. Had he replicated what he put up in December he would have made the grade.
The 4th place finisher in the men’s 200m fly at last year’s Commonwealth Games, Bowen Gough will also be missing out on this year’s World Championships.
Gough raced his way to gold in the men’s 200m fly at these Trials, punching a winning result of 1:56.01, nearing his lifetime best of 1:55.88 from 2021.
Although Gough’s outing dipped under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard needed for Fukuoka, it fell well short of the stiff Swimming Australia-mandated qualification time of 1:54.91 needed to earn a berth.
In fact, only one man in Australian swimming history, Nick D’Arcy, has ever been under the 1:55 threshold. He owns the Aussie national record with the 1:54.46 he put on the books in 2009. Only an additional 4 swimmers – Temple, Morgan, Grant Irvine and Gough – have ever been under 1:56.
THE SURPRISES
23-year-old Shaun Champion wasn’t a swimmer who stole the spotlight in any of his events in Melbourne but the Abbotsleigh athlete was still named to the Fukuoka roster.
Champion contested the men’s 50m fly where he notched a time of 23.46 for silver while he logged a time of 51.88 to capture 3rd place in the 100m fly. His 3rd event was the 100m free where he placed 18th in 50.00.
Champion’s inclusion on the roster is most likely as a medley relay heats swimmer, alleviating duties from 100m fly winner Matt Temple.
Melbourne Vicentre’s Sam Williamson earned runner-up status in the 100m breast in 59.86 but upgraded to gold in the 50m breast in 27.17. The former outing fell short of the 59.49 QT set by Swimming Australia.
As with Champion, Williamson’s inclusion on the roster is most likely as a heats swimmer for the medley relay. That will give World Record holder Zac Stubblety-Cook one less swim to worry about on his schedule at the World Championships.
Kiah Melverton of St. Peters Western finished in the painstaking slot of 3rd in both the women’s 400m and 800m freestyles.
Her last shot at individual qualification came in the 400m IM where she did snag silver in 4:39.65 behind winner Jenna Forrester‘s 4:34.89 but Melverton fell short of the 4:38.53 QT.
Nevertheless, the versatile 26-year-old saw her name added to the Fukuoka roster most likely due to Melverton’s 5th place result in the women’s 200m free where she notched a time of 1:56.85, the 3rd quickest of her career. That sealed the deal to include her as a 4x200m free relay heats swimmer at the very least at the World Championships.
Simpson missed each by very small margins. They were correct to not take him this time, but thats tough.
Simpson: just didn’t swim fast enough/finish high enough to be even be considered for selection. No case can be made.
Horton: has always been the case that he only swims faster when tapered and even then, only has a small quota of good swims. In more recent years, those fast swims have become fewer and the standard of his domestic competition has left him behind.
JES: cannot swim a fast 100 so relay life line could not be extended. On evidence of his general form this year, his Dec swim appears an outlier as he’s been off the pace both at Trials and Nationals.
Gough: slightly unlucky but only to a point. He did not help himself by not making… Read more »
not sure about melverton. if the 400 im was earlier in the program they could use that as a form guide, but it’s on the last day. she would’ve missed the team if it weren’t for her 200 free result, so it’s likely that they intend to give her a heats swim
All in all its a defensible call as many others who they may call upon have multiple individual events (MOC, Titmus, arguably Pallister). Not all will get a leave pass but they will look to rest at least a couple so her finishing 5th ticks the box as a viable heats option. Giving her the 400IM swim just means they aren’t locked into having to use her.
As I said the other day they can select Williamson for a relay prelim even if he doesn’t have the FINA A. This isn’t cooking the books. They can then stick him in the 50 breast so he’s not relay only but his initial selection to the team is not for the 50 breast. Selecting him was necessary in order to ensure there’s a back up swimmer for each leg of the medley in case someone gets injured or sick and then the medley can’t qualify for Paris.
Hopefully Simpson makes Aussie A team to US. He’ll attract media and hype in the US. Great for the sport.
Swimming Australia has done over JES here what a joke. If Shaun champion can go, they can take a guy that’s #1 in the world currently and had an off race to finish .17 off the QT. I get the relay piece but cmon he was third too
Its quite simple ! The relay is a legitimate loophole and Chalmers (2nd place) will be swimming freestyle. Regrettably of him, JES is way off the pace in the 100back so it was 200back or nothing.
You point to his time from December but it appears to be a one-off/anomaly. He did not impress internationally last year and he was off the pace at Nationals.
Quite simply, his case for consideration had less grounds on which to justify than others.
I think they should have taken JES too but Champion and Williamson both have relay uses while JES doesn’t. It does seem crazy to leave a world leading swimmer off the team because of a tenth of a second.
So …. you would select a swimmer on the grounds of a swim back in December which he has subsequently failed to get within 2sec of since ?
It wasn’t as if the QT was outrageously tough; there are already around a dozen swimmers around the world who’ve beaten it. On 2023 times, he ranks down near the bottom end of the top 20.
There is usually more than 20 starters in the 200 back, and it’s not like he didn’t clear the World Aquatics A-cut. Australia is also only bringing 1 other swimmer for the 200 back. Also, JES was like within 0.2s of the QT. Other than to decrease expenses, I see no reason not to bring him.
I don’t think it is quite correct to say that Mack Horton “struggled to keep up with the rest of the world” since his Olympic gold in 2016. The world hasn’t gotten faster in the men’s 400m free; rather, Horton has been getting slower. His winning time in 2016 was 3:41.5, which would have won the gold in Tokyo.
Yes true – the times haven’t gotten that much faster if at all but it’s the players who have changed. Not one swimmers has settled as the prohibitive favourite in recent years… yet.
Horton however had two other big swims at Worlds in 2017 and 2019 with 400 silver on both occasions in pretty decent times. He kept up the pace for a few years. Also has 800 and 1500 minor medals at Worlds, so he has done well enough.
@Retta Race unrelated but entry lists are out for Sette Colli this weekend:
https://www.federnuoto.it/settecolli-2023/settecolli-2023-documents/8398-entry-lists-elenco-iscritti-settecolli-2023/file.html
Includes Popovici, Sjostrom, Milak, Ceccon, Martinenghi, Masse, Meilutyte, Kamminga, Steenbergen, and whole of British World Champs team.
Thanks!
Man, cannot wait to see if Milak actually shows up. Sos (the Hungarian head coach) can be overdramatic in his wording, this could give us a clearer picture as to what form he will be in. If he scratches like during Mare Nostrum, that will be informative as well.
Every single “miss” is a Michael Bohl swimmer. Not something you would see very often with the exception of last year (which was a weird year anyways with the timing of the meets).
Michael bohl’s team has not performed very well, with the exception of Pallister, Mckeown and mckeon. Brendon smith looks like he can return to tokyo form or better.
Correction. Mack Horton didn’t win the 400m free in Tokyo in 2020. He won the event in Rio in 2016.
Yep, I’ll fix!
I mean, he could’ve won Tokyo pretty easily if he was anything close to his form from Rio!