2023 VICTORIAN OPEN LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- February 17 – 19, 2023
- Melbourne Sports Centre
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Site
- SwimSwam Preview
- Psych Sheets
- Results – Meet Mobile: 2023 Victorian Open LC Championships
Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown put her versatility on display competing on day one of the 2023 Victorian Open Championships.
The 21-year-old Griffith swimmer took on the women’s 100m breaststroke and 100m freestyle events with only the men’s 50m breaststroke taking place in between.
McKeown fired off a time of 1:06.86 to win the women’s 100 breaststroke by 3 seconds, establishing a new personal best in the process. She opened in 31.84 and brought it home in 35.02 to easily overtake her previous career-quickest mark of 1:07.85 produced at the 2020 Queensland Championships.
Her sub-1:07 effort renders McKeown Australia’s 8th fastest performer all-time, sitting immediately behind her Olympic finalist sister Taylor McKeown. McKeown also ranks as the 4th fastest performer in the world this season.
2022-2023 LCM Women 100 Breast
Meilutyte
1:04.62
| 2 | Lilly King | USA | 1:04.75 | 06/30 |
| 3 | Evgeniia Chikunova | RUS | 1:04.92 | 04/19 |
| 4 | Lydia Jacoby | USA | 1:05.16 | 06/30 |
| 5 | Kaitlyn Dobler | USA | 1:05.48 | 06/30 |
However, her performance in this event further demonstrates McKeown’s aptitude for the 200m IM, an event in which she qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games but wound up dropping from her program. She entered those Games as the top-seeded swimmer, owning a lifetime best of 2:08.19.
The swimming schedule for the 2023 World Championships brings about a timing conflict should McKeown opt to race the 200m IM in Fukuoka. The 200m IM final would fall on the same day two session as the women’s 100m backstroke semi-final.
Back to Queensland, McKeown also put up a time of 54.66 to also top the podium in the 100m freestyle. McKeown’s splits were only .60 apart between 50’s, with the star opening in 27.03 and logging a back half of 27.63.
With only minutes in between her 100m breast and this sprint, McKeown still managed to register her 3rd fastest 1free time to date. Only her outings of 54.29 from the 2021 NSW State Championships and 54.33 from the 2020 Queensland Championships have been swifter.
Behind McKeown was rising teen Olivia Wunsch, with the 16-year-old Carlile athlete punching a result of 55.38.
The men’s 100m free saw last year’s World Championships qualifier William Yang put up the sole time under 49 seconds. Yang touched in 48.93 to lead New Zealand’s Cameron Gray who logged 49.77 as runner-up.
19-year-old World Championships silver medalist Isaac Cooper produced a time of 24.91 to win his pet event of the 50m back. That comfortably held off 23-year-old Andrew Jeffcoat of New Zealand and fellow Aussie Bradley Woodward who generated times 25.64 and 25.71, respectively.
Additional Winners
- SOSC’s Matthew Galea took the men’s 400m freestyle in a time of 3:52.50.
- Slovenia’s Neza Klancar earned gold in the women’s 50m fly in a time of 26.82, within half a second of the national record.
- The men’s 50m breast saw Samuel Williamson get to the wall first in 27.42.
- Olivia Lefoe of Nunawading hit a mark of 2:16.24 to win the women’s 200m back.
Kaylee dropped a scorching 57.93 in the 100 back! 0.4 faster than this same meet last year and her first 57 since Tokyo!
Yong was 0.2 off his PB in the 100 breast and Wunsch was 0.35 off hers in the 50 free.
Only 3 women has broken 58 sec for 100 back & Kaylee one of them.
Nice warning shot from Kaylee.
I would think Yong isn’t too rested here because why would he be? So maybe he can get well under the minute mark later this year.
Yes, it appears the rumours of her demise in the 100 back were greatly exaggerated. If she isn’t rested for this meet (and I suspect she isn’t) then it looks like her building year last year built some great progress!
I agree, I don’t think Yong is rested, so yes hopefully he can get down. He’s still behind ZSC with 59.51, Williamson with 59.82 and Wilson with 59.95 in the last 3 years. He’s the youngest of that group and appears to be on an upward trajectory, so if he could get down to 59 mid flat start we know he can throw down a good relay split. I really would just love one of our 100 breasts to break… Read more »
Not really a case that people were calling her demise but rather the reality that her backstroke DID look a bit out of sync last year. Granted; the measuring point was her 2021 level.
Having said that, this DID look far more Kaylee 2021 vintage. Was expecting a reasonably quick time; even something 58mid but this was certainly a little message to the world that “sorry to disappoint you folks but I haven’t gone away !”. Will be very interesting to see whether she has any more hit-outs prior to Trials and if so, what she may produce.
Yong looked quite good, albeit mistiming his finish which probably cost him a sub 1.00. He does appear the best, if not… Read more »
Funny how she is suddenly dropping times that make 2022 look poor.
Kaylee scratched the 200 breast and Petric DQed in the heats of the 2IM.
Oh sad…i really wanna see Kaylee swim 200breast final
Oh that’s a shame. I checked MeetMobile earlier (I can’t watch) and I thought it said he DNS but I must have misread.
Seeing Kaylee do her off events is fun but I am keen to see what she can throw down if she gives the 100 back her all.
I knew McKeown would be fast, but not 1 second PB fast. Turns out Bohl might be a decent coach, who knew?
Also people are extrapolating way too much from MOC’s SC Worlds performance in regards to how it may affect her LC form in the future.
Her lead in was not ideal, and it is quite obvious she went hard on backstroke, which is her stronger SC stroke anyway. She has also made it clear that backstroke and freestyle complement each other in her training, doing one improves the other. This year the schedule gives her the freedom to swim all of her events if she desires, and we know she is far better than a 58.8… Read more »
I am one of the ones who expressed concerns about this but I know Melbourne was a specific circumstance. She swam both free and back very well (massive PB in 200 free, 0.01 off PB in 50 back and 0.14 off PB in 100 free) at Comm Games. But since in Melbourne she swam back SO WELL it just felt like she had sacrificed one for the other (even if that wasn’t really the case).
I think it’s pretty optimistic to expect time drops in every event again this year. She made crazy progress in all of her events last year. I’ll be happy if she’s just able to repeat her best times, asking her to improve further feels greedy… Read more »
My prediction is she’ll PB in 100 back and 200 free but plateau in the 100 free.
Well someone has to beat that 51.71, if it stands after Paris I’ll be annoyed.
If I had my choice I would hope she improved in the 100 free for the medley relay and repeated her 1:54 flat for the 200 relay.
McKeown a touch slower than expected but she was doing a double and she always drops significant time in finals.
JES and Woodward both swimming fairly good 200 back times. JES dropped 4 seconds from heats when he swam his PB last year at Qld champs, and if he does the same here he’ll take the leading time for 2023.
Josh Yong was 0.78 off his PB in the 100 breast. Possibility of a PB coming? Maybe wishful thinking because he only dropped a tenth in the 50 final yesterday.
Wunsch 0.7 off her 50 free PB. Don’t think she will drop anywhere near that much but still she’s looking good.
As a side not Charlie Hawke has improved by nearly 2 seconds in yards 200 free in the last year (current LC best is 1:47.50 from trials last year). Maybe he can develop into a contender for the 4×200 by Paris.
Interesting. Has Australia ever had an NCAA swimmer win an Olympic medal before?
Matt Target in 4×100 free Beijing
Plenty !!! Matt Targett is one of the most recent but if you go back to the “so-called” amateur days of the 50s through to the early 80s; you will find a number of leading AUS swimmers took the NCAA route.
The first of note was John Marshall (Yale – silver 400FR/bronze 1500 in 1948. Followed by:
John Davies (Michigan – 200 BRS gold in 1952)Murray Rose (USC – multiple golds in 1956 & 1960Bob Windle (Indiana – 1500 gold in 1964, medals in 1968Mark Tonelli (Alabama – gold in 1980)Mark Kerry (Indiana/USC- gold in 1980, medal in 1984)Michelle Ford (USC – gold and medals in 1980)Mel Schlanger (Hawaii – gold in 2012)There are almost certainly others but these are… Read more »
I didn’t realise until this prompted me to look it up but he really should have been chosen for Worlds.
He came 6th at trials, only .15 behind Short. And then Southam announced he wasn’t going. So really they excluded their 5th fastest who was only .15 behind their 4th. That seems crazy to me. And missed an opportunity to give a promising teenager some international experience.
A case could be made for his selection but at 1.47.50; it’s not exactly saying “you’ve got to select me !!”. All his other events are well off the mark. I will grant there were some highly charitable selections for CG and his case was probably comparable to many in that bracket but his was, realistically, a marginal call.
Up to him whether he makes the step up and truly makes a far stronger case for selection in future. Conversely, he may also decide that NCAA is more his metier …. as it is for many swimmers.
I know 1:06 breastroke is a fast time for Mckeown but I think tagging Adam Peaty in the ‘in this story’ section is pushing it 😂
Lol I didn’t notice this. I bet she’s about to announce project 55 just to overshadow him.
The womens 200im is gonna be fast in Paris
If it wasn’t for all of the schedule conflicts
Yeah… Olympics just fixed the male 200 back / 200IM conflict… only to literally create a back/IM conflict for BOTH BACKSTROKES AND BOTH IMs for women.
Given her 1.07.9 previous PB and her 1.09 heat swim; I was expecting a good time and potentially a new PB; but a 1.06 and 1sec drop …. was not expecting that !!
To put it in perspective; she was only 0.07 off the FINA A QT for Paris and it certainly would, notionally, put her in the selection frame for this event …. if she chose to pursue it.
Her 100 did look rather good and it would not surprise, should she swim it again this season, to see her PB take a haircut.
Back to the implications for her main events; specifically the IMs. Am sceptical that she will pursue the 400; but this is certainly a positive… Read more »
Very good question! She was slower last year than Tokyo (as were the vast majority of swimmers who did well in Tokyo) but her 100 seemed to suffer much more than her 200s. Is this an early sign that her sprint speed might be back?
I’m certainly not suggesting we should expect a PB (aka WR) in the 100 back but it wouldn’t surprise me if she swam a 57 high or 58 low.
I would think the odds are pretty good that Kaylee, SM and the two American ladies are all going to be in the 2:07+ range by the time we get to Paris. It should be very competitive.
Walsh outsplit her in the backstroke leg last year so she really needs to figure out how to push that leg.
Funny but true!
Wow I didn’t realise the 100 breast A cut was so strict for Paris. It seems to have gotten much stricter than other similar events. I’m surprised that backstroke has progressed so much less than the others considering it seems to be considered the most ‘competitive’ stroke 100.
W100 breast
Rio: 1:07.85
Tokyo: 1:07.07 (-.78)
Paris: 1:06.79 (-.28, -1.06 since Rio)
W100 free
Rio: 54.43
Tokyo: 54.38 (-.05)
Paris: 53.61 (-.77, -.82 since Rio)
W100 back
Rio: 60.25
Tokyo: 60.25 (same)
Paris: 59.99 (-.26, -.26 since Rio)
W100 fly
Rio: 58.74
Tokyo: 57.92 (-.82)
Paris: 57.92 (same, -.82 since Rio)