2025 VICTORIAN OPEN LC CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, February 14th – Sunday, February 16th
- Melbourne Sports Centres (MSAC) Outdoor Pool
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheet
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
Day two of the 2025 Victorian Open Long Course Championships at the Melbourne Sports Centres (MSAC) outdoor pool unfolded today with multiple Olympians kicking off their 2025 year of racing
Although not a qualifying competition, this 3-day affair is an important benchmark on the way to the all-important World Championships selection meet, the 2025 Australian Swimming Trials on the calendar for June.
21-year-old Maximillian Giuliani followed up his 100m free victory on night one with a gold this time in the 200m free.
The TSS Aquatics ace stopped the clock at 1:48.05 to beat the field by over a second, splitting 25.29/27.10/27.59/28.07 to get the job done.
Tigersharks’ Cameron Bladen snagged silver in 1:49.10 while visiting Malaysian national record holder Khiew Hoe Yean rounded out the podium in 1:49.91.
Japan’s Rikako Ikee showed her sprinting prowess again, taking the women’s 100m butterfly in a time of 58.19.
Nunawading’s 19-year-old Isabella Boyd was next to the wall in 58.84 followed by 18-year-old Carlile swimmer Olivia Wunsch who touched in 58.98.
24-year-old Ikee, a 3-time Olympian, topped the 50m fly last night while Wunsch was the 100m freestyle victor to open her Vic Open campaign.
Wunsch exacted revenge in the 50m free, however, getting to the wall first in 25.15.
That got the edge over Ikee who nabbed the 2nd-fastest time in 25.56 while Japanese teammate Ai Soma earned 3rd place honors in 25.77.
The women’s 200m breast saw Melbourne Vicentre’s Tara Kinder produce the winning result, hitting 2:28.33 to hold a slight advantage over Nunawading’s 16-year-old Lily Koch who notched 2:28.93.
While Kinder has been as fast as 2:26.26 in her career, Koch’s time this evening represents a new lifetime best.
Entering this competition, Koch’s career-quickest mark rested at the 2:31.93 registered at December’s Victorian Age Championsips. She already dropped that down to 2:30.52 in this morning’s heats before scoring her first-ever sub-2:30 result of 2:28.93.
According to Swimming Australia’s rankings, Koch now is the 10th-fastest 16-year-old Aussie ever in this event.
Not to be overlooked was another teenager, 15-year-old Sienna Toohey, who put up the 3rd-quickest time of the evening in 2:30.31. That was within striking distance of her personal best of 2:29.52 logged at last year’s Australian Age Championships.
Kinder appeared in the women’s 400m free as well, where she won the event in a time of 4:14.67.
Germany’s Lucas Matzerath upgraded his 50m breast silver from last night to gold in the 100m breast.
This evening the 24-year-old notched a time of 1:00.57 to beat Olympian Joshua Yong who touched in 1:01.21. Propulsion’s Calvin Reed bagged the bronze in 1:02.76.
Of note, last night’s 50m breast victor Sam Williamson appeared to go to a 50m breast split in this 100m race. The 27-year-old Olympian touched in 27.12 on the front half and wound up 37.13 on the back half to finish 9th in 1:04.25.
Last night Williamson won the 50m in a blistering 26.66 to become the world’s #1 ranked swimmer thus far this season.
Additional Winners
- 22-year-old Gabriel Gorgas clocked a time of 2:02.57 to win the men’s 200m IM by well over 2 seconds.
- TSS Aquatics’ Lachlan Walker was too quick to catch in the men’s 800m free, topping the podium in 8:09.33 to beat the field by 4 seconds.
- Paris Olympic medalist and 3-time World Championships medalist Iona Anderson doubled up on her 200m back win from last night with a gold in the 100m back this evening. She turned in a time of 1:00.87 after hitting 1:00.50 in the morning heats.
- Korean national record holder Lee Juho represented the sole swimmer of the men’s 200m back field to delve under the 2:00 barrier. 30-year-old Lee touched in 1:57.04, a time within range of his best-ever 1:56.05 from 2023.
- Christopher Elson garnered gold in the men’s 50m fly, registering 24.17. Joseph Hamson reaped silver in 24.48 and St. Andrew’s Jack Carr put up 24.69 for bronze.
It is a pity Williamson swam a 50 time-trial rather than race Yong over the two laps last night. I was looking forward to the ongoing competition between the two Olympians.
SwimAus are selecting stroke 50s for the Worlds so maybe he’s only doing the 50 this year?
Pathetic that ‘live’ results for this meet died about 3/4 of the way through the morning heats and nobody seems to have re-booted things by tonight’s final session.
Situation normal, I suppose… *sigh* *yawn*
Not a whole lot happened today. The results that were most interesting imo:
31.83 for Lily Koch in the 50 breast (heats) but didn’t better it in the final.
Wunsch (1:58.97) and Miller (1:59.52) both went their fastest in season 200 frees.
It’s pretty obvious most of the athletes aren’t at their best for this meet.
not sure how legit this is bc this would be a massive pb and she went 2 seconds slower later in the day but sara curtis apparently went 52.66 in the 100 fr earlier today in turin… shes a couple months removed from eligibility but that would have been a new wjr
I went investigating and it looks like for some events the heats are SCM and the finals LCM. Curtis went 52.66 in the heats.
In Italian: https://www.nuoto.com/articolo/notizie/grandi-eventi/2025/swim-to/swim-to-2025-entry-list-timing-orari-e-info/