2024 AUSTRALIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, September 26th – Sunday, September 29th
- SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview
- Start List
- Live Results
Day one of the 2024 Australian Short Course Championships was on fire, with one World Record and two Australian Records biting the dust before all was said and done.
We reported how multi-Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown fired off a massive 54.56 World Record in the women’s 100m back. Then fellow Olympian Joshua Yong logged a new national mark in the men’s 100m breast – 56.76.
But Ed Sommerville also wanted some of the action, putting up the swim of his life in the men’s 200m freestyle to achieve an upset.
After coasting the 3rd seed out of the morning heats with an AM swim of 1:44.43, 19-year-old Sommerville of Brisbane Grammar turned on the jets when the medals were on the line.
Sommerville smashed a time of 1:40.64 to get to the wall first. That gave him a healthy advantage over Olympian Maximillian Giuliani who posted 1:41.39 while rising 17-year-old star Marcus Da Silva nailed 1:43.22 for bronze.
As for Sommerville, he split 11.10/12.45/12.58/12.91/12.82/13.03/13.03/12.72 to register the new record.
His 1:40.64 sliced .16 off the former national standard and All Comers Record of 1:40.80 Olympic champion Cameron McEvoy put on the books nearly a decade ago in 2015. The Commonwealth Record remains at the 1:40.25 British ace Duncan Scott scored in 2020.
Entering this competition, Sommerville’s lifetime best rested at the 1:43.92 he produced last year. That means tonight’s performance hacked over 3 seconds off his best-ever just one year later.
According to the World Aquatics database, Sommerville now inserts himself into the all-time performers list in slot #7.
Top 10 Men’s SCM 200 Freestyle Performers All-Time
- Paul Biedermann (GER) – 1:39.37, 2009
- Yannick Agnel (FRA) – 1:39.70, 2012
- Hwang Sunwoo (KOR) – 1:39.72, 2022
- Danila Izotov (RUS) – 1:40.08, 2009
- Duncan Scott (GBR) – 1:40.25, 2020
- Townley Haas (USA) – 1:40.49, 2020
- Ed Sommerville (AUS) – 1:40.65, 2024
- Matt Sates (RSA) – 1:40.65, 2021
- David Popovici (ROU) – 1:40.79, 2022
- Cameron McEvoy (AUS) – 1:40.80, 2025
I know Cam is ahead of his time with training techniques, but how does he have a 2025 200fr time already?! 😆
I know it wont happen, but it would be hilarious if Cam decided to give it a try to take back his record.
Also, this is an amazing time to only have 9 comments so far. I guess the standards after the olympics are sky high but damm
I must admit I laughed earlier today when I realised Cam still held a 200m record.
There’s a reason why most renown swimmers say he has the most beautiful freestyle technique
Ed Sommerville within a second of a world textile record. 5th fastest textile time ever. Amazing!
This is so shocking to me. I’m almost more impressed by this than Kaylee’s WR. Almost.
What is his LCM PB?
1:48.66 from late last year.
1:48.66 from december 2023, but he hasn’t swum the event since march
This 1:40. is a serious time. Surely, he can be faster than that 1:48 in the big pool.
Amazing swim, hopefully he can kick on in the big pool. Well done Ed. Love to hear an interview of him to hear what he thought of the swim, amazed, working paid off?