Cameron McEvoy Continues In-Season Speed With 21.53 At Sydney Open

2025 SYDNEY OPEN & UNISPORT NATIONALS

• Friday, May 16th – Sunday, May 18th
• Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Meet Central
• Start List
• Results – Meet Mobile: 2025 Sydney Open UniSport Nationals

The 2025 Sydney Open & UniSport Nationals kicked off today from the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. The three-day affair is a non-selection competition, however, it is an important milestone along the path to next month’s all-important World Championship Trials.

31-year-old Cameron McEvoy wasted no time making his presence known in the men’s 50m freestyle, firing off a swift in-season swim of 21.53 in the heats.

The Somerville House Aquatics athlete’s time was just off his season-best of 21.48 notched at last month’s Australian Open Championships to rank 3rd in the world.

In tonight’s final, McEvoy added slightly but still grabbed the gold in 21.73 ahead of Bond’s Flynn Southam and fellow Olympian William Yang.

Southam put up 22.22 as the silver medalist while Yang bagged bronze in 22.34.

As for McEvoy, his performances here indicate once again that he is the premier men’s 50m freestyler and is showing no signs of slowing down since capturing gold last year in Paris.

Southam dove in for the opposite end of the distance spectrum, contesting the 400m free where he snagged silver in 3:59.26 behind winner Thomas Hauck.

Hauck of All Saints posted 3:54.48 while bronze medalist Caleb Dryer clocked the only other sub-4:00 outing in 3:59.53.

22-year-old Hauck is a multi-national age group record holder, including owning the nation’s top 400m free time ever performed by a 13-year-old at 4:05.32 from 2016.

Thus far, he’s struggled to translate those types of age group performances into the senior ranks but maintains a versatile array of possibilities, including in the mid-distance freestyles, backstroke and IM races.

Griffith University Swim Club’s Hayley Mackinder was the top women’s 200m breaststroker, logging 2:29.37 to hold a narrow advantage over Bond’s Tilly King.

King was next to the wall in 2:29.71 while her clubmate Lenihei Connolly rounded out the podium in 2:30.60.

17-year-old Mackinder is coming off an impressive series of swims performed at this year’s Australian Age Championships, including big-time personal bests of 1:07.70 in the 100m breast and 2:26.55 in the 200m breast. Former Aussie Olympian Thomas Fraser-Holmes trains the teen but she’s also been working with British Olympic champion Adam Peaty’s former coach Mel Marshall at Griffith.

Finally, Milla Jansen stopped the clock at 24.97 as the sole performer of the women’s 50m freestyle to dip under the 25-second barrier this evening.

That represents the 5th-swiftest performance of the 18-year-old’s career, one which boasts a lifetime best of 24.76 from when she earned gold at last year’s Junior Pan Pacific Championships. She was also the 100m free silver medalist (54.18) and 200m free bronze medalist (1:58.26) at that competition.

Olivia Wunsch hit a time of 25.08 to earn silver behind Jansen tonight and Japan’s visiting Olympian Ai Soma bagged the bronze in 25.43.

Additional Notes

• The women’s edition of the 400m free saw 19-year-old Hannah Casey of Bond turn in a time of 4:14.50 to lead the pack by nearly 5 seconds, establishing a new personal best in the process. Casey was the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships bronze medalist in both the 100m and 200m freestyle events.
• Bella Grant produced an outing of 2:10.14 to reap gold in the women’s 200m fly ahead of teammate Poppy Stephen who wrangled up silver in 2:12.78. Rafaela Kopellou also landed on the podium in 2:13.98.