Chalmers Collects Remarkable 4th Australian National Title

Caeleb Dressel

2019 AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

As a reminder this meet is NOT a World Championships qualifying affair. The Australian World Championships Trials take place in June.

Men’s 50m Free – Final

On the heels of American Caeleb Dressel firing off his fastest 200m free ever, in-season to boot, halfway around the world his speeding bullet rival Kyle Chalmers of Australia threw down a personal best of his own. 20-year-old Chalmers produced his quickest 50m freestyle to do date, a time of 22.07 to win the gold.

The 2016 100m free Olympic champion wrapped up his remarkable 4th national title at these championships with this win, having claimed the 100m free, 200m free and 100m fly throughout the 6-day competition.

Entering these Nationals, Chalmers’ personal best in this 50m free event rested at the 22.13 he threw down just this past January at the South Australian Open States. Prior to that, you’d have to go back to the 2016 and 2015 for his lifetime bests, which were 22.15 and 22.19, respectively. The latter time was logged en route to the gold at the 2015 World Junior Championships in Singapore. At that competition, Chalmers took home an incredible 7 medals, including double gold in the aforementioned 50m free and 100m free.

With his 22.07 tonight, Chalmers now inserts himself into the world rankings as the 11th fastest swimmer, fittingly just .01 ahead of Dressel.

2018-2019 LCM MEN 50 FREE

2Vladimir
MOROZOV
RUS21.2708/15
3Bruno
FRATUS
BRA21.3106/09
4Kristian
GKOLOMEEV
GRE21.4507/27
5Benjamin
PROUD
GBR21.4804/28
6Andrea
VERGANI
ITA21.5304/02
7Michael
ANDREW
USA21.6207/27
8Shinri
SHIOURA
JPN21.6704/07
8Pawel
JURASZEK
POL21.6707/27
10Florent
MANAUDOU
FRA21.7206/21
11Maxim
LOBANOVSKIJ
HUN21.7903/27
12Artem
SELIN
RUS21.8307/07
13Maxime
GROUSSET
FRA21.8607/26
14Ryan
HELD
USA21.8708/04
14Nathan
ADRIAN
USA21.8708/09
View Top 36»

Runner-up tonight went to Rackley athlete Will Stockwell in 22.29, while Grayson Bell rounded out the top 3 in 22.42.

Women’s 200m IM – Final

Brisbane Grammar swimmer Calypso Sheridan continued her siege on the women’s IM events, doubling up on her 400m IM silver from night 2 with another powerful swim tonight. Entering these championships, the Northwestern University student-athlete’s 200m IM personal best rested at teh 2:15.43 she produced at the Queensland Championships in 20116 at just 17 years of age.

This morning Sheridan dropped that down to 2:14.74 to claim the top seed, only to lay waste to that new PB with a humongous winning effort of 2:11.53. That’s about a 4 second time drop in a day from where she was to now sit as the 13th fastest swimmer in the world this season.

2018-2019 LCM WOMEN 200 IM

KatinkaHUN
HOSSZU
07/21
2.07.02
2Ye
SHIWEN
CHN2.08.6007/22
3Sydney
PICKREM
CAN2.08.6106/01
4Rika
OMOTO
JPN2.08.6405/10
5Yui
OHASHI
JPN2.08.8008/04
View Top 26»

St. Peters Western swimmer Abbey Harkin, who took the 100m breast national title earlier in this competition, snagged silver tonight in this 200m Im in 2:12.26. That’s over a second and a half off of her previous lifetime best effort.

Western Australia’s Blair Evans took home bronze in 2:14.29.

Men’s 200m Back – Final

Not to be outshone by Chalmers is the fact that Mitch Larkin also picked up his 4th National Title of these championships tonight, busting out a 1:56.22 to win the men’s 200m back. That gold is added to his 200m IM, 400m IM and 100m back national titles here in Adelaide.

Tonight Larkin led the charge of 2 other sub-2:00 swimmers in Tristan Hollard and Cameron Tysoe, who finished with the silver and bronze in times of 1:57.17 and 1:59.10, respectively.

Larkin’s time tonight, after a long meet of intense racing, places the 25-year-old St. Peters Western swimmer right in the mix among the world’s best swimmers at 11th in the world rankings this season.

Overall in his career, Larkin’s gold tonight represents his 18th national title.

Women’s 100m Back – Final

With training partner and domestic rival Emily Seebohm not competing here in South Australia, 18-year-old Minna Atherton went head-to-head with 17-year-old 400m IM winner Kylee McKeown in the 100m back tonight.

Splitting 29.14 to McKeown’s 29.22 to start out, Atherton held on to come home in 30.57 to McKeown’s 30.66 and take the title in 59.71. This is added to Atherton’s 50m back title already from this competition.

Tonight’s time from Atherton is within striking distance of her personal best of 59.34 from 2016. For McKeown, her PB is 59.25 from last year’s Pan Pacs.

Wilson finishing in 3rd in 1:00.53 is also notable, proving she’s still got her backstroke discipline in form while dropping some notable times in the 100m/200m freestyles to put her name in the ring for relay spots this summer.

Men’s 200m Fly – Final

  • GOLD – Nic Brown, 1:56.50
  • SILVER – Bowen Gough, 1:56.73
  • BRONZE – David Morgan, 1:57.21

Putting up the best time of his career, 23-year-old Nic Brown stood atop the men’s 200m fly podium in a time of 1:56.50. This marks the 23-year-old Western Australian’s first time ever under the 1:57 barrier in the event. Of note, Brown’s father was also an Australian Dolphin, winning 4 national titles between the years 1988 and 1990.

Nunawading’s Bowen Gough took the silver in 1:56.73, while Olympian David Morgan also landed on the podium in 1:57.21.

Brown’s performances places him within the top 15 performers in the world this season.

Women’s 50m Fly – Final

  • GOLD – Holly Barratt, 25.91
  • SILVER – Cate Campbell, 26.03
  • BRONZE – Natasha Ramsden, 27.03

Bringing some outside smoke out of lane 8, 31-year-old Holly Barratt busted out a big-time 25.91 to win the women’s 50m fly tonight over national record holder Cate Campbell. C1 produced a nice swim of her own in 26.03 for silver, while Natasha Ramsden clocked 27.03 for bronze.

Tonight’s performance matches Barratt’s 4th fastest time of her long career, positioning her now 7th in the world this season.

2018-2019 LCM WOMEN 50 FLY

2Holly
BARRATT
AUS25.3108/16
3Ranomi
KROMOWIDJOJO
NED25.3507/27
4Farida
OSMAN
EGY25.4707/27
5Kelsi
DAHLIA
USA25.4807/27
View Top 26»

Men’s 1500m Free – Final

  • GOLD – Josh Parrish, 15:15.53
  • SILVER – Ben Roberts, 15:15.66
  • BRONZE – Mitchell Tinsley, 15:26.18

The grueling 1500m free final came down to the touch, with Josh Parrish hitting the wall first in 15:15.53 to just beat out Ben Roberts who finished .13 later in 15:15.66. MItchell Tinsley took bronze in 15:26.18.

Parrish took bronze in the 400m free on night 1 and silver in the 800m free as well, so he’s got a collection of all 3 medal colors to close out his national championships.

Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay – Final

St. Peters Western crushed a winning time of 4:04.87 to take the women’s 4x100m medley relay for the women by over 2 seconds. The foursome of Shayna Jack, Abbey Harkin, Michaela Ryan and Ariarne Titmus collectivtly beat out runner-up Nunawading, who finished in 4:07.55, as well as Brisbane Grammar, who earned bronze in 4:09.19.

Splits for the top team included 1:03.16 for typically non-backstroker Jack, 1:07.83 in breast for Harkin, 59.92 for Ryan in the fly and finally a solid 53.96 from Titmus, who has had the meet of her life with world-class 200m free and 400m free swims.


											
										

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NickW
4 years ago

amazing what a no pressure meet can produce, this meet is equivalent to a club night for juniors – just for fun, but hey let them feel good

Dangus
4 years ago

As a reminder this meet is NOT a World Championships qualifying affair. The Australian World Championships Trials take place in June.

commonwombat
Reply to  Dangus
4 years ago

Yes, we will only really have an accurate “read” as to the intl relevance of the times at this meet once we have the results of the selection trials. Will some of those who had break-out swims or swam intl ranking times here be able to replicate or better in 2 months time OR will it be a case of some swimmers and their coaches still stuck in the old routine of “peak in April” ?

The following is a summary of how times at this meets stacked up against the QT that will need to be met in Jun:

M50FS (QT 21.77) 0 qualifiers; M100FS (QT 48.31) 1 (Chalmers); M200FS (QT 1.46.28) 0 qualifiers; M400FS (QT 3.46.14) 1 (Winnington);… Read more »

Holiday blues
Reply to  commonwombat
4 years ago

Some really good swims. I think we have a few areas to work on. Struggling in the areas of womens breaststroke and individual medley.
In the men we are really struggling in butterfly and 100 breaststroke. This will hurt our medley relay.

straightblackline
Reply to  commonwombat
4 years ago

Australia swam well at the Commonwealth Games which were held in April last year and then did even better at the Pan Pacs in August for which the trials were held five weeks earlier. So I’d say your fears about too many swimmers having just peaked might be overdone. I agree there are far too many weaknesses in Australian swimming. The biggest holes are the freestyle sprints and butterfly for the men and the breastroke and IM events for the women.

commonwombat
Reply to  straightblackline
4 years ago

You’ve overlooked the fact that there were a number who swam at CG who sat out PPs. As it was, the Trials for CG were in Feb so we cannot really take 2018 as an accurate measuring stick of how well swimmers and coaches have translated to the new regime. For mine, they’d do far better to simplify things for good and scrap April Nats and make the selection meet National titles; the only exceptions being that rare occaision where the major intl meet is actually being held in the Southern Hemisphere and during an AUS summer/early autumn.

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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