2020 QUEENSLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, December 12th – Friday, December 18th (Day 1 relays only; Days 5-8 are age group)
- Brisbane Aquatic Center
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Meet Preview
- Entries/Live Results
- Live Stream ($)
We’ve seen some incredible 100m freestyle swims by teenagers over the past couple of years, with the 15-year-olds, in particular, breaking through in a big way.
From Jacob Whittle of Great Britain to David Popovici of Romania, there have been multiple men under 50 seconds in this marquis event at this young age of 15, bringing the competition to new heights.
Now add the name Flynn Southam to the list of rising stars, as the 15-year-old just busted out a new Australian national age group in the 100m freestyle. Not only did the Bond teen join the sub-50-second party en route to winning his age category’s 100m free Queensland title tonight, but the athlete overtook the record hold by none other than Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers.
Southam just nailed a monster effort of 49.65 to take the Queensland age title for 15-year-olds, splitting 24.51/25.14 in the process. That managed to slice .03 off of Chalmers’ PB at that age of 49.68, a time that he rocked in 2014 to establish the record.
Here is a split comparison of the two:
Chalmers’ 49.68 from 2014 – 24.09/25.59
Southams’ 49.65 from tonight – 24.51/25.14
Remarkably, 15-year-old Southam had never before been under the 50-second mark, let alone the 52-second mark entering tonight’s Queensland Championships final. The kid’s personal best in this event previously stood at the 52.52 he logged at this same meet in 2019.
He already got under that PB with a morning effort of 51.71 before crushing a historic 49.65 tonight.
For perspective, the aforementioned Whittle of GBR hit a time of 49.97 as a 15-year-old, while Popovici was 49.82 as a 14-year-old. The latter has dropped that PB down to 49.26 as a 16-year-old now.
As another angle, consider that Southam’s 49.65 tonight would rank the Bond teen as the 3rd fastest man ever in the 15-16 age group in U.S. history, sitting only behind Caeleb Dressel’s 49.28 and Destin Lasco’s 49.67.
God these boys are going to be ridiculously fast when they get the strength to get out faster. Fantastic swimming.
Small correction, I believe Whittle was also 14 years old when he swam 49.97 – His DOB is September, Euro juniors were in June/July.
I guess you’re right. But Romania’s Popovici was even faster than Whittle, in Baku at EYOF 2019 when he swam 49:82 at 14 years old.
22.91 in the 50 for Southam. #2 15 yo behind Chalmers (22.68).
Southam just broke the 50 free 15 age record and the 23 second barrier… 22.91. Prior record was 23.03.
That’s interesting. The age rankings PDF has Chalmers at #1 with 22.68.
oh interesting… the overall rankings file has Chalmers at the top with the 22.68 but the records page has Te Haumi Maxwell as the record holder at 23.03.
I know it is highly speculative but if he can translate gains made in his initial events (200 back 6 sec pb here) and 100 free (close to 3 sec pb) then he could break the 100 back and 200 free age records. The 200 free record might be one of the toughest ever with Thorpe @ 1:46.70. Southam entry time is 1:52.66. One can dream!
Ian Thorpe age group records are ridiculous.
Pick of the bunch has got to be 3:41.8 in the 400 as a 16 year old. Mack Horton is the only person without a drug history of any age to swim under that time in textile.
Oh, and Thorpey did it in a brief too.
Thorpe was a freak!!!!
Congratulations Flynn! Massive effort.
O’Callagan did a 53 at age 16 . Broke Campbell’s age record
Oh wow really.. didn’t cate do 53.30 at 15 though?
She was slower at 16 tho.
It was Kukla’s age record.
That second 50 from Southam is incredible. How does his time measure up to Dressel at 15?
50.85