Faster Than An Olympic Final: Watch The Aussie Women’s 100 Free From Trials

2019 AUSTRALIAN WORLD SWIMMING TRIALS

 

Something magical happened on the pentulatimet night of the 2019 Australian World Swimming Trials, as the women’s 100m freestyle final saw 8 fierce females throw down times that rival that of an Olympic final.

Led by Aussie swimming icon and one of the best sprinters in the history of the sport, Cate Campbell, the final saw 3 sub-53 second times and 2 53-point efforts, giving the world a scary glimpse into the kind of 4x100m freestyle relay the green and gold may bring to the table at next month’s World Championships.

C1 clocked 52.12 for the fastest time in the world this year, while Emma McKeon produced a new lifetime best, her 2nd of these Trials, with a silver medal mark of 52.41 to add this to her World Championships repertoire.

Bronte Campbell, C2, put up a super solid mark of 52.84 after having taken a post-Commonwealth Games break and still battling recurring injuries, while Shayna Jack took 4th in a new lifetime best of 53.18.

Factor in Madi Wilson (53.60, new PB), Brianna Throssell (54.25, 3rd fastest of her career), Holly Barratt  (54.67, first time ever under 25…at 31 years of age!) and Leah Neale (54.94, first time ever under 55) and the women brought down the house in this final to kick-off day 5’s session.

For fun, below is tonight’s final from Australia compared to that of the 2017 World Championships, as well as that of the 2016 Olympic Games just to demonstrate how truly special the top performances were this evening in Brisbane.

Women’s 100 free Finals
2019 Australian World Trials 2017 World Championships 2016 Olympic Games
Cate Campbell 52.12 Simone Manuel 52.27 Penny Oleksiak 52.70
Emma McKeon 52.41 Sarah Sjostrom 52.31 Simone Manual 52.70
Bronte Campbell 52.84 Pernille Blume 52.69 Sarah Sjostrom 52.99
Shayna Jack 53.18 Mallory Comerford 52.77 Bronte Campbell 53.04
Madi Wilson 53.60 Ranomi Kromowidjojo 52.78 Ranomi Kromowidjojo 53.08
Brianna Throssell 54.25 Penny Oleksiak 52.94 Cate Campbell 53.24
Holly Barratt 54.67 Bronte Campbell 53.18 Abbey Weitzeil 53.30
Leah Neale 54.94 Emma McKeon 53.21 Jeanette Ottesen 53.36

As originally reported:

WOMEN’S 100 FREE – FINAL

The women’s 100m free tonight simply looked like an Olympic final, hands down, with the top 3 swimmers all hitting sub-53 second markers.

Cate Campbell led the field with a menacing 52.12, laying waste to the stiff Aussie-mandated Worlds QT of 53.20 and crushing her previous season-best of 52.35 from Aussie Nationals in April.

C1’s time tonight, which was composed of splits of 25.44/26.68, represents the 6th fastest 100m freestyle performance in history. The Simon Cusack-trained star already is on the all-time performances list with her 52.03 from Pan Pacs last year and 52.06 stunner from the 2016 pre-Olympic Grand Prix.

51.71 SARAH SJOSTROM SWE 7/23/2017 BUDAPEST
52.03 Cate Campbell AUS 2018 Pan Pacific Championships 8/9/2018 Tokyo
52.06 Cate Campbell AUS 2016 Swimming Australia Grand Prix 7/2/2016 Brisbane
52.07 Britta Steffen GER 2009 World Champs 7/31/2009 Rome
52.08 Sarah Sjostrom SWE Meeting International de Canet-en-Roussillon 6/18/2017 Canet
52.22 Britta Steffen GER 2009 World Champs 7/26/2009 Rome

Hitting the wall .29 later was on-fire Emma McKeon, who just produced her 2nd lifetime best of these World Trials. After already snagging the 200m free and 100m fly World Championships qualification, with a PB of 1:54.55 in the former, the Griffith University Olympic medalist cranked out a huge 52.41 in this women’s freestyle tonight to take silver.

So far this season McKeon has been as quick as 52.84, the time that gave her silver behind C1 at Aussie Nationals. That itself was just .04 off of her lifetime swiftest of 52.80 hit at the Aussie Olympic Trials in 2016, so McKeon entered new territory tonight to hack almost .4 off of that PB to take silver and put her name in the mix for an individual medal in Gwangju.

McKeon’s outing tonight is among the top 20 performances of all-time and the 25-year-old has just become the 6th fastest performer ever in the event.

51.71 SARAH SJOSTROM SWE 7/23/2017 BUDAPEST
52.03 Cate Campbell AUS 2018 Pan Pacific Championships 8/9/2018 Tokyo
52.07 Britta Steffen GER 2009 World Champs 7/31/2009 Rome
52.27 Simone Manuel USA 7/28/2017 Budapest
52.27 Bronte Campbell AUS 4/5/2018 Gold Coast

Bronte Campbell may have finished 3rd and out of individual qualification in this 100m free, but her time of 52.84 is her first sub-53 second outing since last year’s Commonwealth Games.

After battling injuries and taking some time off, C2’s time here tonight is tremendous, inserting her among the top 8 performers in the world this year.

St. Peters Western star Shayna Jack also reaped her 2nd lifetime best of these Trials for 4th tonight.  This morning she threw down a solid 53.21 for the 3rd seed, only .01 off of the time she clocked at Aussie Nationals that marked a PB.

Behind the Campbell sisters and McKeon, Jack held her own, flying to the wall in 53.18 to get nearer to that 53-second barrier and add her name to the women’s 4x100m free relay.

Marion’s Madi Wilson finished 5th in 53.60, but is continuing to look dynamite her in terms of personal victories. She already logged a new PB this morning of 53.88 and the 25-year-old hacked that down to 53.60, most likely enough to get a nod on the relay as a prelims swimmer in Gwangju.

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sggs
4 years ago

Adding up times is 0.1 seconds faster than what they won with in Rio. Seems like a done deal at Worlds

Verram
4 years ago

I guess we will see how the USA responds at worlds.. you know they will use these results as strong motivation to fire them up and upset the Aussies

Let’s see USA defend their world title in the sprint relay

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Verram
4 years ago

on the men’s side , i agree but for the women’s relays ….Usa has some work to do to beat the Aussies ….

Oldswammer
Reply to  Verram
4 years ago

Brings up the question, what is the staging like for USA this summer. Didn’t they only have like 4 days from arrival at pan pacs to start of competition? How long are they in Gwangjus time zone before they start competing?

Bayliss
4 years ago

wonder if we can blame the “Aussie choke” at the last two olympics on the time zone change. London and Rio were on basically opposite ends of the world to the Auessies. Australia will have a much easier transition in terms of time zones when they travel to tokyo than the USA will.

Another random thought, summer olympics occur during aussie winter so maybe swimmers are just suffering seasonal depression symptoms when they get into august. Trials in feb/march corresponds to our august/September.

All to say it just seems to make sense that biologically we would feel more active during sunny long days, and less active during shorter ones.

DrSwimPhil
Reply to  Bayliss
4 years ago

Or maybe the Australian pools aren’t actually 50m long?

Robbos
Reply to  DrSwimPhil
4 years ago

Doesn’t affect Chalmers!!!! Watch for 1st 46. in textile.

Yozhik
Reply to  DrSwimPhil
4 years ago

He is digging too deep when the answer is on the surface. Everybody around knows even American senators do who to blame on for all their mishaps. 😀

Honest Observer
Reply to  Bayliss
4 years ago

Agree completely about the time zones, that’s a far more important component of performance than is generally acknowledged. And it goes a long way toward explaining the generally poor American performance last summer at Pan Pacs. But as far as the Aussie winter/summer, not so much. Yes, fewer hours of sunlight, but the Aussie winter is not the equivalent of winter in Michigan: Cate Campbell and Kyle Chalmers won’t exactly have to take off their snow boots and parkas at their practice pools and shiver their way through the last couple months of training.

Anon
Reply to  Honest Observer
4 years ago

But they’re having the swimming finals in the morning to suit American tv viewers … yet again …

Samesame
Reply to  Anon
4 years ago

I still get angry thinking about this^. It’s against the wishes of the host country and just about everyone else. Unbelievably , the Rio finals were not even shown live in all of the USA apparently , even though that was the reason for very very late finals ???

Torchbearer
Reply to  Honest Observer
4 years ago

A large number of swimmers train In Queensland, and the team has camps in the far North- in the tropics. Not very wintry in temperature or daylight hours.

Aigues
Reply to  Bayliss
4 years ago

You can notice that China and Japan (two other “jetlagged” countries) performances in Rio were not extraordinary.

Yozhik
4 years ago

Why everybody is in black at this meet: officials uniform, summer’s jackets. When they go to the deck all together, looks like a funeral procession. Is it just a sad tribute to those who won’t be selected.

Samesame
Reply to  Yozhik
4 years ago

It’s winter here . I think they look professional

skip
Reply to  Yozhik
4 years ago

do you ask why most race suits are black lol

Alex
4 years ago

That was a superb race. When you add up the top 4 times, you get 3:30.55 which is faster than the relay WR in Rio

marklewis
4 years ago

Cate Campbell is trying out different race strategies in the 100 to find the best one for her.

I think she wants to avoid getting passed in the last 20 meters. That’s how she lost some of those big races like the Olympics and WCs. She looked very easy going out and then accelerated after the turn. She passed McKeon this time instead of she being the one getting passed.

So, Cate’s splits were 25.44 and 26.68 coming home. More like a Kyle Chalmers kind of swim.

Joe
Reply to  marklewis
4 years ago

Easier said than done when the chips are down and super swimmers are half a body length up at the turn. Doing it against McKeon at a trials is one thing, doing it against Sjostrom in a Worlds final is another thing entirely. But clearly, the more relaxed she swims, the better the outcome.

Luigi
4 years ago

I have seen many videos of C1’s swims, but she never ceases to amaze me with her long, smooth stroke.
It’s weird to see a specialist of the longer distances such as EMC go out fastest, generally they rely on the back half. But it definitively worked for her!
All in all, lots of talent in that pool, I don’t see how they can be beaten in the relay outside of a false start.

Yozhik
Reply to  Luigi
4 years ago

It’s still same Cate Campbell with her 0.8 reaction time.
Young swimmers want get everything at once. They feel like they are ready to get it right away. The fast start is very typical for them. If they are not good at the end, they believe that with the practice and with more maturity they will get it.
The older ladies are wiser, knowing that no improving of back end comes if not to provide for it at first part of the race. In Cate Campbell’s case her worst races were when she went for world record time with the her fastest initial time.

snarky
4 years ago

A straight add-up of the top four times is only 0.5 off of the Aussies World Record in the 400 free relay. Pretty solid. It is interesting how the Aussies have recently (last decade or so) produced very good frestylers (especially the 100) but not much else.

Love to Swim
Reply to  snarky
4 years ago

“recently”?

I think the Aussies have a long history in producing great 100 freestylers. The only decade they failed to do so was the 90s.

Anon
Reply to  snarky
4 years ago

Obviously forgetting Lisbeth Lenton, Jodie Henry and Alice Mills who dominated 2003-2007

snarky
Reply to  Anon
4 years ago

Uh, that’s a decade or so ago.

Robbos
Reply to  snarky
4 years ago

Very confused, won 4×100 in 2004, 2012 & 2016 & favourites for 2020, came 3rd in 2008. I can tell you there is a royal commission on why the bronze only in 2008.
Some people.

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