2020 QUEENSLAND MEDAL SHOTS
- Friday, November 13th – Sunday, November 15th
- Brisbane Aquatic Center, QLD, AUS
- LCM (50m)
- Live Results
Australia’s Kaylee McKeown already threw down the fastest 100m backstroke mark of her career en route to a new national record yesterday and the teen was back at it in the 200m back tonight.
Yesterday while competing at the 2020 Queensland Medal Shots Long Course Preparation Meet, USC Spartan McKeown scorched a new lifetime best of 58.11 to overtake Olympian Emily Seebohm‘s longstanding Aussie standard of 58.23 put on the books at the 2012 Olympic Games. You can read more about McKeown’s 100m back stunner here.
McKeown entered an entirely new level in the 2back tonight, hitting a menacing time of 2:04.49. That not only laid waste to her previous career-quickest of 2:05.83 from just this past January, but it marks the first time an Aussie woman has ever gotten under the 2:05 barrier in the event.
Seebohm held the Aussie national standard with the 2:05.68 she produced for gold at the 2017 World Championships. That was a special swim for mainstay Seebohm, as she represented her nation’s sole individual event medal there in Budapest.
Flash forward to tonight and McKeown split 29.74/31.91 (1:01.65); 31.81/31.03 (1:02.84) to register her historic 2:04.49. She not only becomes Australia’s fastest performer in history in this LCM 200 back but the teen now checks-in among the world’s best-ever, situating herself in slot #3.
Top Women’s LCM 200 Back Performers All-Time
- Regan Smith (USA), 2:03.35 2019
- Missy Franklin (USA), 2:04.06 2012
- Kaylee McKeown (AUS), 2:04.49 2020
- Kirsty Coventry (ZIM), 2:04.81 2009
- Anastasia Fesikova (RUS), 2:04.94 2009
McKeown took silver in this 2back event at the 2019 FINA World Aquatics Championships behind World Record-setter Regan Smith of the United States. Smith hit 2:03.69 for gold after producing a WR of 2:03.35 in the semifinals while McKeown posted 2:06.26 for silver in Gwangju.
Be interesting to see how she performs in the 200 i.m
Crazy how differently her and rwgan split the race
this has to be the swim of the year so far. last year, Smith’s 2:03 was undoubtedly the swim of the year; and in 2012 Franklin’s 2:04 was one of the, if not the, swim of the year. Do not be fooled by the lack of WR, this swim is one of the greats
Insane!
Insane! Tough year, but shows her toughness – Congrats Kaylee
I am really impressed with the way she has been consistently able to evenly split her races(1:01.65 – 1:02.84, the last 100 was actually faster than Smith’s 1:02.98 when she set the world record last year).
Wouldn’t be surprised if she manages to win both backstroke events against Smith next year at the Olympics as long as she maintains the ability to close fast in the last 50…got to love all these back-half swimmers!
i would be quite surprised. great swim nonetheless
What happens next year is unknowable at this stage. What these performances from McKeown HAVE “stated” is that the 2 female backstroke events may not be the “engrave her name on the gold” certainties for Smith that some put forward.
These 2 swims from McKeown may turn out to be “that one special moment in time” but conversely this may herald further steps forward.
Was Atherton’s Worlds performance, as well as her recordbreaking ISL season 1, another breakthrough only to plateau or does she have more to say ? As yet, we have no evidence to hand either way.
Will Smith, as some hope, proceed to take the WR in these events into territory untouchable for others for year… Read more »
Nice Fresh Prince reference in the 4th paragraph!
Wow great time .. so I’m assuming that’s also a commonwealth record beating out Kirsty Coventry ?
Ah ok cool .. so it’s a new commonwealth record nonetheless
Zimbabwe us3d to be in the commonwealth . Coventry did swim in 2002 Comm games .
Coming back in a 1:02 though! Crazy