2024 QUEENSLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
- December 14th – December 20th
- Brisbane Aquatic Centre
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview
- Draft Entries
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
- Live Results
Day three of the 2024 Queensland Championships unfolded from Brisbane with age groupers getting the chance to race against world-class talent from throughout Australia with some foreign talent sprinkled in as well.
Three-time Olympian Rikako Ikee of Japan, who has been training at Griffith University the past year, took on the women’s 100m fly and 100m free, grabbing gold in each.
24-year-old Ikee topped the women’s 100m fly podium in a time of 57.91, splitting 26.86/31.05 in the process.
That was enough to hold off Tea Tree Gully’s Brittany Castelluzzo who settled for silver less than half a second back in 58.37, the 3rd swiftest time of her career. USC Spartan Abbey Connor rounded out the podium in 59.46.
Ikee then put up a solid in-season swim of 55.40 to take the women’s 100m free by nearly a second.
Jamie Perkins of St. Peters Western was next to the wall in 56.25 followed by Sienna Walo of Southport who clocked 56.31 for bronze.
22-year-old Jamie Jack continued to impress, registering a new lifetime best en route to winning the men’s 100m free.
After coasting to the top seed with a heats swim of 49.47, Jack turned on the jets to produce a gold medal-worthy result of 48.27.
Opening in 23.12 and closing in 25.15, Jack’s performance overtook his previous career-quickest mark of 48.69 from this year’s Australian Olympic Trials. He now becomes Australia’s 14th-best LCM 100 freestyle performer in history.
St. Peters Western teammate Kai Taylor hit 48.96 for the silver medal and visiting New Zealander Carter Swift bagged the bronze in 49.64.
Among the age group set, 12-year-old Grayson Coulter stole the show again, racing in the 200m IM and 100m fly events tonight.
In the former, Coulter stopped the clock at a massive 2:11.16 to establish a new Queensland All Comers Record. As a refresher, state All Comers Records are akin to U.S. Open Records and represent the fastest time put up by a swimmer of any nation in the state of Queensland.
The former QLD All Comers benchmark stood at the 2:12.00 Japan’s Kato Kosei put on the books in 2015. It was Kato’s 200m free All Comers mark Coulter also took over during last night’s finals.
Coulter then competed in the 100m fly where he notched a new lifetime best as well.
The Kiwi split 27.52/31.01 to score the sole time of the field under the 1:00 barrier. His performance handily surpassed Iori Takeno‘s former Queensland All Comers record of 59.50 logged 2 years ago.
Additional Notes
- China’s Xu Fang pumped out a time of 51.95 to top the men’s 100m fly podium by well over a second. The fastest Australian was represented by Thomas Nankervis who registered 53.43 while St. Andrew’s Jack Carr was also in the mix at 53.47 for 3rd place.
- Bond’s Sienna Harben turned in a time of 1:08.39 to lead the women’s 100m breaststroke. This is an upgrade from the silver she earned in the 200m distance last night.
- The men’s 100m breast saw Chandler’s 21-year-old Bailey Lello double up on his 200m breast gold from yesterday. Tonight he split 28.58/31.53 to post 1:00.11 to knock just under half a second off his previous PB of 1:00.57 from this year’s Trials.
- 2023 World Championships bronze medalist Jenna Forrester was too quick to catch in the women’s 400m IM, hitting 4:47.49 for gold.
