2023 AUSTRALIAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TRIALS
- Tuesday, June 13th – Sunday, June 18th
- Prelims at 10am local (8pm previous day EDT)/Finals at 7pm local (5am EDT)
- Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Center
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships Selection Criteria
- Meet Central
- Final Start List
- Day 1 Prelims Live Recap/Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Live Recap/Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Live Recap/Day 3 Finals Live Recap
- Live Results
- Livestream (9now)
The women’s 200m freestyle tonight in Australia was a thriller of a race, with Olympians Mollie O’Callaghan and Ariarne Titmus battling all the way to the finish.
In the end, it was 19-year-old O’Callaghan who touched first, blasting a new lifetime best of 1:53.83 while Titmus settled for silver in a season-best 1:54.14. Lani Pallister also landed on the podium, clocking 1:56.03 as the bronze medalist.
For MOC, her best-ever entering this event sat at the 1:54.01 produced at the 2022 Commonwealth Games for silver behind Titmus. However, her 1:53.83 PB not only keeps her as the #2 Australian performer in history but the Dean Boxall-trained teen is also now the 5th swiftest performer of all time worldwide.
Top 10 Women’s LCM 200 Freestyle Performers All-Time
- Federica Pellegrini (ITA) – 1:52.98 2009
- Ariarne Titmus (AUS) – 1:53.09 2021
- Allison Schmitt (USA) – 1:53.61 2012
- Katie Ledecky (USA) – 1:53.73 2016
- Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS) – 1:53.83 2023
- Summer McIntosh (CAN) – 1:53.91 2023
- Siobhan Haughey (HKG) – 1:53.92 2021
- Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) – 1:54.08 2016
- Tang Muhan (CHN) – 1:54.26 2021
- Yang Junxuan (CHN) – 1:54.37 2021
MOC now takes over the top spot in the season’s world rankings, surpassing Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh.
2022-2023 LCM Women 200 Free
O'Callaghan
1:52.85 WR
| 2 | Ariarne Titmus | AUS | 1:53.01 | 07/26 |
| 3 | Summer McIntosh | CAN | 1:53.65 WJR | 07/26 |
| 4 | Siobhan Haughey | HKG | 1:53.96 | 07/26 |
| 5 | Katie Ledecky | USA | 1:54.96 | 03/02 |
This women’s 200m freestyle event demonstrated yet again the Aussie depth in the discipline, with the top 7 finishers all dipping under the stiff Swimming Australia-mandated qualification time of 1:56.87 needed to qualify for next month’s World Championships.
The event also put a spotlight on the dominance of St. Peters Western specifically, as 8 of the top 12 swimmers out of the heats and 5 of tonight’s finalists all hailing from the club.
Fun to watch Molly’s swim because of her fast finishing kick.
That’s how you win close races.
That 28.2 last 50 must have been one of the best ever.
Mollie O to ”Mollie Whoa!”
It’s crazy to think that Titmus might end up not winning individual gold at Fukuoka.
At least – unlike Summer – she prob has a good chance at relay gold
Summer has like 3 chances of winning individual golds my guy.
more like 5 chances
That’s bold, considering how tight some of her events are.
Summer posted her times at the end of march early April my guess the goal for summer, at worlds is to drop a second at all her events if she does that no one touches her.
Does Canadia have any guys who actually swim? 😉
Liendo, Knox, Acevedo????
Y’all need to keep up on Canadian swimming. It isn’t just Summer and Penny.
Summer,s only real lock on gold is the 400IM. The 400 free could be added to that but is still quite tight. The rest of her events are far from a lock.
She leads the 200 IM with 2:06 high but Kaylee McKeown and alex walsh have been 2:07 low so that is also quite tight as well.
The 400 IM is the only race where she is far away from everyone.
She wins 4 of 5 pretty easily, the only iffy one is the 200 butterfly, she has a chance to break the world record in all the other ones, the 200 free summer posted that time like on the fifth day of trials mollie was fresher but it won’t matter , summer goes 1:52 high at worlds.
He said relay gold…
Real possibility. She handled the Ledecky challenge well, let’s see how she handles this one.
Well the difference is that her other rival is much younger and this is a three way battle and a close race.
Ledecky challenge!? Nah, before the Olympics she had a real chance at the 200 considering her 1:53.09 time. But it’s a different story right now.
She’s ranked number 2 and 3 in all her events.
By “she had a real chance at the 200”, are you saying that she doesn’t anymore? She’s a 22 year old that has gone 1:53.0, 1:53.3, 1:53.5, and 1:53.8 in the past 2 years, there’s no way she’s out of the running
I was referring to her world rankings at that time, that going into the Tokyo games she was a huge favorite in the 200, unlike now, where she’s an underdog in all her events.
The “Ledecky challenge” was likely referring to the 400 where she was probably the favorite but not by much of a margin. I still think it’s somewhat similar in the 200 this year just with more competitors and at least imo Titmus still might be the favorite
Wow 2 years and like 2-3 days ago, there were only 3 women who had done sub 1:54 across 4 swims. In the last 732ish days, there’ve been 4 new women who have broken 1:54 across 7 swims (although Titmus is the only one who has repeated it so far)
It is a great to see more people seriously back-halfing the 200 free – I have no idea why fly and die became so popular – and I think this is one reason we are finally seeing times start to get faster for both men and women. That said… looking at those splits, have to wonder if MOC and Titmus both could have made their move a little earlier.
Lol no one ever used to fly and die in the 200 Free, the tactic was to go slow until 150 and then sprint home, Thorpe even said it himself in his famous “everyone in the world is swimming the 200 Free the wrong way” quote
Come on, on men’s side we had so many years with 1:44 highs because swimmers were cruising the first three laps and sprint only the last one. Not only mine but also Thorpe’s opinion.
Finally Chlorine Daddy arrived and brought “fly and don’t die” back.
https://www.youtube.com/live/SsKtFCWzF-U?feature=share&t=2694
Really interesting observation regarding MOC’s skill development and what this swim might’ve meant to her.
So many coaches and specialists are involved in an Olympian’s career, and you can easily overlook how important some of these experiences are.
Is he referring to Dean Pugh? Or has another coach who has worked at that program passed away recently?
If it is Dean, I didn’t realise she and Dean were at that program at the same time. Dean was a brilliant coach, one of the smartest swimming brains I’ve ever been around.
Peter cherry was her coach as a junior swimmer.
Oh has PC passed, I hadn’t heard.
Not surprising unfortunately, he’s had health issues for a long time.
It’s crazy to think but it seems totally possible that a 1:54 low might not even medal at worlds.
If every swimmer is on form then we have 4 who have been 1:53 in the last 2 years. It’s possible a 1:53.9 doesn’t medal! But that would need all of them to swim at their best in the one race.
Another old world record in serious jeopardy.
It’s going down at Worlds
Yep and this summer world championship has the potential to be the best since 2009 and that’s the same meet where Pellegrini broke the world record.
Yeah, but I think it will be Summer, not MOC. Maybe Titmus.
What makes you think it’ll be Summer? She has a slower PB and will be swimming a 200 fly earlier that same session.
I think the 200 free is actually first.
You’re right, I was confusing it with Paris where the 400IM is before the 200 Free in the same session.