2023 AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- April 17 – 20, 2023
- Marine Parade, Southport, Queensland
- Gold Coast Aquatic Centre
- Long Course Meters
- Meet Central
- Entry Sheets
- Prelims at 10 a.m. AEST / 8 p.m. EST; finals at 6 p.m. AEST / 4 a.m. EST
- Preview
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
- Live results
While competing on day one of the non-selection 2023 Australian National Championships, 19-year-old Sam Short put up the fastest 400m freestyle of his young career to enter the all-time rankings.
Stopping the clock in a swift 3:42.46, Short beat out Olympian and reigning world champion Elijah Winnington, with Winnington settling for silver nearly 4 seconds behind in 3:46.39. Tommy Neill rounded out the top 3 in 3:49.28.
As for Short, entering this meet he’d been as quick as 3:44.34, a mark he put up at this same meet one year ago. But with tonight’s swim he dropped almost 2 solid seconds to enter entirely new territory. He’s now the 10th fastest performer in history worldwide and passes up icon Grant Hackett to become the 4th quickest Australian 400m freestyler in history.
Top 10 Men’s LCM 400 Freestyle Performers All-Time
- Paul Biedermann (GER) – 3:40.07, 2009
- Ian Thorpe (AUS) – 3:40.08, 2002
- Sun Yang (CHN) – 3:40.14, 2012
- Ous Mellouli (TUN) – 3:41.11, 2009
- Elijah Winnington (AUS) – 3:41.22, 2022
- Zhang Lin (CHN) – 3:41.35, 2009
- Park Tae Hwan (KOR) – 3:41.53, 2010
- Mack Horton (AUS) – 3:41.55, 2016
- Lukas Martens (GER) – 3:41.60, 2022
- Sam Short (AUS) – 3:42.46, 2023
Top 5 Australian Men’s LCM 400 Freestyle Performers
- Ian Thorpe – 3:40.08, 2002
- Elijah Winnington – 3:41.22, 2022
- Mack Horton – 3:41.55, 2016
- Sam Short – 3:42.46, 2023
- Grant Hackett – 3:42.51, 2001
Short also now ranks #1 in the world this season.
2022-2023 LCM Men 400 Free
Short
3:40.68
| 2 | Ahmed Hafnaoui | TUN | 3:40.70 | 07/23 |
| 3 | Lukas Martens | GER | 3:42.20 | 07/23 |
| 4 | Elijah Winnington | AUS | 3:43.48 | 06/13 |
| 5 | Guilherme Costa | BRA | 3:43.58 | 07/23 |
The Rackley star was a two-time medalist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, claiming 1500m free gold (14:48.54) and 400m free silver (3:45.07). His new PB of 3:42.46 would have taken silver behind Winnington at last year’s World Championships.
Looking at this list of all-time Australian performers really reminds us of how lackluster the US is in this event compared to other events
And it really makes you wonder why, is 500y really that different from 400LCM training wise? Or is SCY too focused on relays that mid-distance swimmers end up focusing on the 200 to contribute more to the team?
I swear the mind blowing swims are always the least expected! Such a pleasant surprise
He’s shown a lot of promise so it’s not too surprising that he’s gone 3:42 only that he did it this week and not at trials.
Even so, I don’t think a sudden 2 second PB is “expected” from anyone (other than maybe Summer McIntosh). He jumped from 37th all time to 10th in one race. That’s gotta be pretty rare.
I think he can go a lot faster than he just did here. Short is about to have his international breakout this year.
Well, define a LOT…
A lot faster would be WR
he’s 2.4 seconds off the wr. even dropping a full second could be considered a lot
I still can’t believe without Biederman , Thorpe would the longest standing WR holder by almost 21 years…
And apart from Sun Yang in 2012, no one has really been close either…. As an aside, I think Yang breaks it in 2012 if he’s not painfully long on the finish. Thorpe too tended to really glide into the wall. I think with some better finishes 3:39.8-9 would’ve been the time to beat.
Of all the records to fall from the supersuits, Thorpe’s 400 was the most painful for me.
Hell yeah
Yes I agree.
WOW, the swim of the night!!!!!
Surely he hasn’t tapered.
He’s a better 800 & 1500 swimmer, after your Wiffen (the Irish swimmer) swimming 3 PBs in 400, 800 & 1500 & in the latter 2 now amongst the best ever, could Short now do likewise?
Certainly not tapered or rested here. I would be rapt to see a big pb in the 1500 but that is a different beast of a race to a 400. I will say though he certainly has plenty of “easy speed” so who knows.
not to mention he’ll have the 200 earlier in the session
Yeah I am sure he won’t swim the 200 final regardless of heat time. Maybe coach will change his mind after this 400 to throw a little extra hurdle for Sam to overcome??? Not like anyone is close to him by seed time in the 1500 so it could be a good test for him (coaches can be funny like this, just not funny if you’re the swimmer lol)
There are ten events between the 200 and 1500. That’s minimum 90 minutes? I reckon he can handle both.
One thing is if he cound handle it physically (Wich he should), another thing is mentally have to reset from the first race to another and do the 1500 at the end.
No one’s ever tapered
Yes very true.
But in this case why would he, a month out from the Trials.
Some swimmers can swim well untapered, others no chance.
I can tell you with absolute certainty Sam is an extremely hard trainer and this meet is just another very hard training session (albeit with extra fluffy feelings if he performs well, which the hard trainers will do under load).
loved his interview. he couldn’t believe and said he was being hammered with aerobic work at the moment
His 400m time is now miles ahead of his pbs in 8 and 15 in terms of world ranks. Looking forward to see what he does in the 8 (maybe sub 746) but not sure if he goes 1440s in 15.