2024 VICTORIAN OPEN LONG COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, February 23rd – Sunday, February 25th
- Melbourne Sports Centres Outdoor Pool (MSAC)
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Psych Sheets
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
- Livestream
Day two of the 2024 Victorian Open Championships took place today in Melbourne with 22-year-old Kaylee McKeown putting up additional impressive performances.
Already on day one the Olympic champion took gold in the women’s 100m breast (1:07.01) and silver in the 100m free (54.35). This evening, the Griffith star tried the 400m free and her bread-and-butter 100m back on for size.
In the 4free, McKeown stopped the clock in a time of 4:06.85 as the runner-up. That checked in as a big-time personal best, erasing her previous PB of 4:10.67 notched in 2020.
Topping the event’s podium was 21-year-old Lani Pallister who posted a solid in-season 4:03.03. That represented the 6th-fastest time of the relay world champion’s career.
As for McKeown, she later ripped a swift 58.19 as the sole 100m backstroke competitor to get under the 1:00 threshold.
Opening in 28.72 and closing in 29.47, McKeown’s effort was an impressive in-season follow-up to the 57.33 World Record she posted while racing the event on the 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup circuit.
Her time this evening would have taken the gold at this year’s World Championships in Doha, sneaking ahead of American Claire Curzan‘s 58.29 podium topper.
Also in the water tonight was Emma McKeon, Australia’s most decorated Olympian of all time, along with her visiting teammate Rikako Ikee of Japan.
Last night we saw Ikee get the better of McKeon in the 50m fly, but it was McKeon’s time to shine on night 2 in the 100m sprint.
29-year-old McKeon stopped the clock in a rapid result of 56.40, exactly 2 seconds ahead of Ikee’s silver medal-worthy 58.40.
McKeon opened in 26.34 and closed in 30.06 to check in as the 4th-quickest performer in the world on the season.
2023-2024 LCM Women 100 Fly
WALSH
55.18 WR
| 2 | Torri HUSKE | USA | 55.52 | 06/16 |
| 3 | Regan SMITH | USA | 55.62 | 06/16 |
| 4 | Yufei ZHANG | CHN | 55.86 | 09/27 |
| 5 | Angelina KOHLER | GER | 56.11 | 02/11 |
McKeon and Ikee battled yet again later on in the session as the speedsters dove in for the women’s 50m free final.
McKeon once again raced her way to the top of the podium, turning in a time of 24.68. Ikee was just under a second behind in 25.65 while New Zealand’s Gabi Fa’amausili rounded out the top 3 finishers in 25.68.
Additional Day 2 Winners
- William Petric won the men’s 200m IM gold in a time of 2:00.22 for the 5th-best performance of the Nunawading swimmer’s career.
- The men’s 50m fly saw Cody Simpson get it done for gold in 24.11, just .04 ahead of Jack Carr‘s 24.16. Simpson owns a lifetime best of 23.48 from last year’s World Championships Trials.
- 26-year-old Kane Follows earned the top prize in the men’s 200m back in 1:58.59.
- Tara Kinder got to the wall first in the women’s 200m breast, clocking a result of 2:27.52 as the sole competitor under 2:30.
- Haig Buckingham produced a winning effort of 1:00.78 to grab the men’s 100m breast gold while Joshua Yong was a hair behind in 1:00.80.
- Just two men dipped under the 1:50 threshold in the 200m free, as Cameron Bladen produced 1:49.24 to William Yang‘s 1:49.59 in the final.
Wilson and Yong with 2:11s in the 200 Breast. Lani with a 1:56.6 in 200 Free. Cody a 52.02 in 100 Fly.
Wilson in an interview on the live stream mentions he is getting back into form from 5 years back. i.e. his 200 WR year
That would be nice but I’ll believe it when I see it. Paris is really his last chance.
Wilson and Atherton both randomly broke WRs and then just never got anywhere close to their best ever again
Any signs of a decent breastokker for the Australian women?
The 100 breast is our big hole.
theres a few age groupers but they probably need at least another year or so – Sienna Toohey (14) was a 1:08.39 like a week ago
You never know at that age, particularly with breaststroke which is less strength based compared to the others. I think leisel was 14 when she qualified for the 2000 Olympics and then won silver a few months later. The fact that she swam a 1:07.49 two weeks after turning 15 while most of the Aussie girls are still struggling to hit those times is kinda embarrassing
Ruta was 15 when she became Olympic champion and Pilato was 14 when she won silver at worlds (and 16 when she broke the WR)
McKeown….. 🙂
Kaylee a no show this morning which is disappointing. Hope all is well.
Which event(s) was she entered in?
200IM and 50BK
In 2022 Michael Bohl said it was a “building year” for Kaylee and that paid off handsomely in 2023.
In 2023 Bohly said he was not aiming for Emma to peak that year (a building year) but instead aiming everything towards peaking in 2024.
It’s early days but the signs are promising that Bohl’s plans for McKeon in the Olympic year could come to fruition.
I was skeptical when Bohl said this in 2022 but last year proved he was right. We need to trust him I suppose
Tbh I was a bit skeptical initially.
McKeon just went 52.5 in a time trial😳
However, that’s based on the screen timer because the touch pad wasn’t set up properly.
Is that on the live stream???
Yes. Heat 9 of Women’s 200m Free.
Any official split times provided as yet? Meet mobile and official result link are either wrong or not available
Live results gives her split as 53.02 for the first 100.
The live result page hasn’t been updated? Only shows the psych sheet.
If you look at the finals results it shows the prelim results and McKeon swam 53.02.
just using youtube as a guestimate looks more like 52.7-8 range
Definitely under the time shown. I took a pic of the 100m split and it clearly shows the time as 52.7 and she’d already touched. Sub13’s on the money with a 52.5
Emma’s finish was really quite poor in the 100 fly so she could’ve gone a little faster.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Mckeon may have another very big Olympics.
This whets my appetite 🤤
Certainly not a bad opening hit out for the year from McKeown. Think she snuck just under 58 at the corresponding meet last year but ….. she hadn’t swum a 400free a few events earlier.
Suspect the schedule will be NSW next month (where its likely SPW will come out to play) then Nationals.
Was expecting 57low (and hoping for 56high) from McKeon so 56.4 was a rather pleasant surprise. Given this was the range I saw for Trials, 56low may well be in play.
I thought the 58.19 was a meet record.
Was it not?
Kaylee back half is ridiculous.
Don’t let you know who sees this 😉
*cough cough*
awsi dooger