Ed Sommerville Rocks 1:44.93 200 Free To Make Aussie Trials Statement

2025 AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING TRIALS

One of the highlights on day two of the 2025 Australian World Championship Trials came in the men’s 200m freestyle, with Ed Sommerville cranking out a lifetime best to steal the show.

After establishing himself as the second seed with a morning swim of 1:46.02 out of the heats, Brisbane Grammar’s Sommerville fired off a monster effort of 1:44.93 to take the gold.

20-year-old Sommerville split 24.24/26.05 (50.29)/26.92/27.72 to get the job done, easily clearing the World Championships qualification time of 1:46.70 in the process.

He got to the wall with a healthy advantage over Olympian and 400m free victor here Sam Short who snagged silver in 1:45.71 while Flynn Southam ripped a PB of 1:45.85 for bronze.

According to the Swimming Australia results database, Sommerville’s previous career-swiftest 200m free mark entering this meet rested at the 1:47.54 notched at the Sydney Open just last month. That means the rising star completely bypassed the 1:46 1:45 zone en route to clocking his impressive 1:44.93 tonight.

Furthermore, Sommerville’s performance now checks him in as the 4th-best Aussie men’s 200m freestyler of all time.

Australian Men’s Top 5 LCM 200 Freestyle Performers All-Time

  1. Ian Thorpe – 1:44.06, 2001
  2. Maximillian Giuliani – 1:44.79, 2023
  3. Clyde Lewis – 1:44.90, 2019
  4. Ed Sommerville – 1:44.93, 2025
  5. Thomas Fraser-Holmes – 1:45.08, 2014

He ranks 4th in the world on the season, with Singapore on the horizon.

2024-2025 LCM Men 200 Free

LukeUSA
HOBSON
06/04
1:43.73
2Lukas
Märtens
GER1:44.2505/03
3Gabriel
JETT
USA1:44.7006/04
4Edward
Sommerville
AUS1:44.9306/10
5Hwang
Sunwoo
KOR1:45.0310/15
View Top 26»

Although the name ‘Ed Sommerville‘ may be new to some, he’s not a newcomer to anyone who followed the Australian Short Course Championships last September.

At this same pool, Sommerville crushed a mark of 1:40.64 to win the men’s 200m freestyle title, taking down Olympic champion Cameron McEvoy‘s 2015 All Comers Record in the process. Sommerville, McEvoy and Kyle Chalmers remain the only Aussie men ever to delve under the 1:41 barrier in the SCM 200 free, with Sommerville’s mark checking him in as the 7th-best performer in history worldwide.

Sommerville made his senior Australian international roster debut at last year’s Short Course World Championships. There in Budapest, he teamed up with Maximillian Giuliani, Elijah Winnington and Harrison Turner to claim men’s 4x200m free relay silver.

On his performance this evening at these Championships, Sommerville told Nine.com“It just makes me want to stay on top even more.

“I’ve worked hard to get here but I’ve still got a way to, so I’ll just keep working on hard.”

He continued, “I think it’s just a combination of everyone in my support crew’s hard work, like parents, siblings, coach, physios. I’m glad to show what I can do.”

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SNygans01
1 day ago

The times stated for 2nd and 3rd are wrong (fortunately!).
They were 1.45s, not 1.46s.

GOATKeown
1 day ago

In 2023 we dropped 4.47 seconds from trials top 4 add ups to the actual relay… if we did that this year that’s a WR lol

Thomas The Tank Engine
Reply to  GOATKeown
1 day ago

How much was the drop in 2019 when they won 4×200 in Gwangju?

Troyy
Reply to  Thomas The Tank Engine
1 day ago

Looks like their top 4 were 1:45.76 1:45.88 1:46.14 1:46.82 = 7:04.60

7:04.60 – 7:00.85 = 3.75 pretty big drop too

really not expecting that this year but I could see Giuliani have a big improvement from trials to Singapore

Sqimgod
1 day ago

1:44 nowadays is like 1:45 in the 2010s

John26
Reply to  Sqimgod
1 day ago

Naw, the field is probably only 0.5 faster

mdswammer
1 day ago

Last 50 musta hurt

Winkelschleifer
1 day ago

The split times summary is not 1:44,93

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having 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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