2022 VICTORIAN OPEN
- Friday, February 18th – Sunday, February 20th
- Melbourne Sports Centre (MSAC)
- LCM (50m)
- Psych Sheet
- SwimSwam Preview
- Results
- Day 1 Results PDF
Day one of the 2022 Victorian Open brought the heat, as evidenced by 20-year-old Kaylee McKeown‘s monstrous swim in the 200m backstroke.
Multi-Olympic gold medalist McKeown smoked the field en route to topping the 2back podium in a super quick mark of 2:04.64. That outing was faster than what the now-Michael Bohl-trained athlete logged for gold in Tokyo, which was a time of 2:04.68.
Read more about McKeown’s 200m back swim here.
Another newcomer to Bohl’s group, Brendon Smith, dove in today as well, taking on the men’s 400m free. The 21-year-old clocked a time of 3;51.77, a solid swim for this time of year under a new training program. In fact, his swim tonight nearly knocked off his own previous personal best of 3:51.04 from the 2021 Australian Championships.
As a reminder, Smith pulled a major surprise in Tokyo by winning bronze in the men’s 400m IM, placing just a tenth behind American Jay Litherland for silver. That made him just the second Australian man ever, and first since Rob Woodhouse at the 1984 Games, to medal in the 400 IM at the Olympic Games.
Holly Barratt topped the podium twice to kick off her Vic Open campaign, first in the 50m fly and the in the 100m free. In the former event, the 34-year-old Rockingham swimmer earned the victory in 26.44 as the only 50m fly swimmer to dip under 27 seconds.
In the 100m free, Barratt also found success, taking gold in a time of 55.75. That slid into the wall just .14 ahead of runner-up Elyse Woods of Miami who touched in 55.89.
Additional Notes:
- Bradley Woodward earned gold in the men’s 50m back in 26.21, while it was Samuel Williamson who got the best of Matt Wilson in the 50m breast. Williamson got to the wall in 28.09 while Wilson snagged silver in 28.61.
- Alex Graham notched a time of 50.12 in the 100m free after taking the top seed with a morning outing of 50.05.
- In multi-class action, Rowan Crothers crushed a men’s 100m free swim worthy of 931 points, logging a time of 52.09. Matthew Levy did damage in the men’s 50m breast MC in 37.74 to collect 811 points as well.
