When the Australian roster for the 2022 FINA World Aquatics Championships was revealed, there were some heads scratched when Flynn Southam‘s name was not in the lineup.
With his 100m and 200m free finishes, the Bond teen would have been in line to be named on the Budapest roster for relays; however, Southam only appeared on the Aussie contingent for the Commonwealth Games.
16-year-old Southam held his own against his older compatriots at the just-concluded Australian Swimming Championships, finishing 4th in the 200m freestyle with a time of 1:46.82, 3rd in the 100m free in 48.76 and 4th in the 50m free in 22.39. The former two were just off personal bests while the latter marked a new career-quickest effort.
After the Aussie rosters were revealed for Budapest and Birmingham, Southam confirmed via social media his reasoning for not heading to Worlds, saying he would instead have eyes on the Junior Pan Pacific Championships.
“Qualifying for Worlds and Commonwealth Games and being able to represent Australia at one of the biggest sporting stages in the world has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid. It’s now a privilege to be able to do it now, as just a 16-year-old. It’s a responsibility now to hold up my end of the deal and perform the best I possibly can at the games. The decision to not go to worlds and focus on gaining more experience at the Junior Pan Pacs was made to help my long-term development and experience come Paris 2024.”
This year’s Junior Pan Pacs are scheduled for August 24th – 27th in Hawaii, while the swimming portion of the Commonwealth Games is on the agenda for July 29th – August 3rd.
With Southam not on the Worlds roster, Jack Cartwright made the cut for Budapest, with the 23-year-old given another chance to show his talent after battling shoulder injuries for the last 3 years.
Cartwright placed 4th in the 100m free (49.04) after hitting a prelims mark of 48.66. He is a tripe medalist from the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships and also earned a gold medal in the men’s 4x100m free relay at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
“Qualifying for Worlds and Commonwealth Games and being able to represent Australia at one of the biggest sporting stages in the world has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid”
So he was pressured/persuaded out of going by administrators/coaches.
Ed
Are you saying that just because he said it’s a dream to qualify for a senior team? He’s still going to one of the senior meets, just not both. He’s skipping the first one where he would have been relay only for a junior team where he has individual gold medal potential in multiple events.
For worlds, in the absence of Southam, I think they will potentially use the quartet of Incerti, Yang, Cartwright and Chalmers in the 4x100m free relay
I wonder if Temple, Incerti, Cartwright, and Yang could make it out of prelims. Would have to use Chalmers I suppose.
They have to use Chalmers if they want to make it to final.
Remember 2015?
They didn’t swim MacEvoy and D’orsogna in the prelims, finished 13th, and didn’t make it to final.
Team is too weak to swap anyone out.
They could always do a time trials during their staging camp to see who of the sprint boys will swim the finals but it would be a mistake not to use Chalmers either way .. they would have to swim Cartwright as he was picked solely due to relay .. but he need to be tested in prelims I think .. they also have the 50 free boys Nowakowski and Bell who might be used potentially
The 50 guys have never broken 50 before. Temple is really the only other option and he could be swapped in if someone underperforms in the heats.
Southam has similar trajectory with Chalmers, with even better 200.
Both qualifying as relay member at the same age, 16 yo.
Chalmers went to 2015 Worlds and split 47.9 in relay prelims, and went to 2015 Worlds junior and won 50 and 100.
Southam will be instrumental in the relays at Junior Pan Pacs if the Aussie boys are to beat the Americans.
I wonder if Japan is going to JPPs and what’s happening with that junior worlds on around the same time?
Good for him.
Realistically, the M4x100free wasn’t getting a medal anyway, and as he was 4th in the 200 he might be replaced by Chalmers, so I think he made the right choice. Really excited to see where he goes, and hopefully him making these decisions that are best for his own development will give him lots of room to grow and lots of space for longevity.
Hasn’t Chalmers said he’s not swimming the 200 anymore?
I assumed he wasn’t going to be targeting it individually anymore but didn’t think that meant he couldn’t swim on the relay? He’s our fastest 200 and he likely won’t final in either of his individual events.
The way I interpreted it is that he wants to not swim any 200s before the 100 free in the program which includes the 4×200. But he’s not swimming the 100 free this year so maybe he’ll do the 4×200 anyway.
flynn,hwang,popovici,whittle gonna be the future of freestyle
2 of them are already there, one is nearly there & the other one will get there.
Already there: Hwang & Popovici
Nearly there: Whittle
Will get there: Southam
Yep.