2021 QUEENSLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Saturday, December 11th – Friday, December 17th
- Brisbane Aquatic Centre
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Entries
- Day 1 Recap
- Day 2 Recap
- Results
Two-time Olympic gold medalist, Ariarne Titmus was back in the water today taking on the women’s 400m free and 100m free double here at the Queensland Championships.
Yesterday Titmus, who is only now getting back into the groove since taking some time off for mind and body post-Tokyo, placed 2nd in the 200m free behind 17-year-old Olympic teammate Mollie O’Callaghan.
Today, however, Titmus was in total control of the 400m free, posting a super solid return effort of 4:04.64 to take the race by about 3 seconds. St. Peters Western training mate Kiah Melverton was next in line in 4:07.63 while Griffith’s 24-year-old Moesha Johnson was good enough for bronze tonight in 4:08.00.
For perspective, Titmus’ 4:04.64 time here would have placed 6th in that Tokyo final as a testament to how dangerous the Dean Boxall–trained swimmer is in this distance.
This is the event in which the Tasmanian ended American icon Katie Ledecky’s international meet winning streak by taking gold at the 2019 FINA World Championships.
She solidified the fact that performance was not a fluke by grabbing gold on the biggest stage at this summer’s Olympic Games, posting a monster 3:56.69 that just-missed Ledecky’s Olympic (and World) Records from Tokyo.
In the 100m free, a lesser event for Titmus, the 21-year-old hit a time of 56.39 to snag 6th place. Taking the top spot was the aforementioned on-fire 17-year-old Mollie O’Callaghan.
Tonight the teen put up a time of 53.62, registering the 4th fastest performance of her young career. She owns a lifetime best of 53.08 from Tokyo, so tonight’s result sits only just over half a second off of that.
Behind her tonight was 23-year-old Shayna Jack, the woman who is making her racing debut after having served a 2-years suspension for having tested positive for a banned substance in 2019.
Jack is competing in her first meet since the Australian Trials in 2019 and already hit near-lifetime bests in day 1’s relays. In this individual 1free, Jack earned a runner-up time of 53.80, touching just .18 behind O’Callaghan.
Splitting 26.62/27.18, Jack was also within range of her best-ever, a mark of 53.18 from those 2019 Trials.
The men’s 100 free open category saw 16-year-old Flynn Southam shave another .02 off of his newly-minted lifetime best from yesterday.
Competing in the 16-year-old race 24 hours ago, Southam logged 49.42 to surpass an Ian Thorpe Queensland Age Record.
Today, splitting 24.62/24.78, Southam sliced another .02 away to hit 49.40 as the winner over Tommy Neill who was oh-so-close in 49.43. Neill was also in the water contesting the 400m free, beating the field by over a second in 3:50.20.
Additional Notes:
- Already making waves with his big-time 200m breast result of 2:07.00 last night, Olympic champion Zac Stubblety-Cook doubled up with a time of 59.74 to take the 100m sprint. That was the only sub-1:00 time of the field.
- Brianna Throssell got it done for gold in the women’s 100m fly in 58.51 while Bowen Gough did the same o the men’s side in 52.80. Of note, both Clyde Lewis and Mitch Larkin were in that men’s 1fly race, with Lewis posting 53.54 for 4th while Larkin touched in 53.96 as the 7th place man.
- Chelsea Hodges was tonight’s 100m breast winner for women, touching in 1:07.76.
AUS badly needs a women’s 200 IM swimmer to step up beside Kaylee.
Also. I wonder if, with new coaching, Mitch Larkin is concentrating on backstroke for next year or if he will be swimming the 200IM later in the season.
Based on tonight’s results he’s bringing it back winning 200 back in 1:55
He swam a 1.54 200back at Nationals ……. and still ditched it in order to chase a mirage, ie 200IM. Having 2 strike-outs in that event internationally (2019 Worlds & Olympics) SHOULD be a strong enough message but who knows what’s on his mind. Is he looking to continue through to Paris or will he one who collects his retirement pay-out after CG ? Will he target both meets or will CG be his sole focus ? There factors would most likely dictate his event choices.
I see Mollie didn’t start in the 200 Back this morning. Oh well I guess she’s had plenty of swims already..
The youngsters 100 free specialists are all back-half swimmers: Popovici 47.30 (22.97-24.33), Hwang Sun Woo 47.56 (23.17-24.39), Whittle 48.11 (23.55-24.56), but today Southam has “exaggerated” (49.40 with 24.62-24.78). I think that a 1.3 sec gap between first and second 50 is a balanced way to swim the 100 free also for these youngsters so strong in the back-half.
For perspective, famous back-halfer Chalmers closed in 24.37 and 24.29 in his two PB swims.
Lezak was 24.55 when Bernard was losing some ground.
What was Phelp’s second split when he led off?
23.31-24.20
Is that the fastest back-half in history?
I really don’t understand those who do not regard the 100 free at the blue riband event.
It’s going to be so exciting seeing these youngsters develop, you have 2 teenagers already in mid & lowish 47s, another one in Whittle just knocking on the door & is still very raw & young & now a Southam coming along & matching the fastest times for his age.
I’m sure there is some American 15-18 year old, who will be great by 2023.
Now you add Dressel, Chalmers & Kolesnikov, who aint goung away anytime soon, the 100 free is going to be stacked.
Its weird, I see the 100F as the men’s blue riband event, but 200F as the women’s blue riband event….
The 100 free is consistently the most competitive event for men and women. The 50 free often has more entrants at the Olympics purely because more universality entries go for the easiest event to swim, but in terms of actual competition it’s always the 100 free.
I’m not a big fan of the 50s as it caters for the best starters, especially in the men’s. I accept that starting is a big part sprint swimming.
Hence someone like Dressel fast starter, but as we saw in Tokyo, he beat Chalmers to the wall, he’s a great swimmer too.
It is their shoulders that might not last.
True!!!!
There’s Heilman who broke the NAG record, although I don’t think he’ll be world stage in the LCM 100 free until at least the Paris Olympics if not after that. Then again, Popovici (who is 2.5 years older) was going about the same time in the 100 free 2.5 years ago, so who knows
Mollie also swam a 2.10 200 back
I’ve been thinking for the Past year that the 200 Back could be Mollie’s best event. She’s so good in the 200 Free and she’s got great speed in the 100 Back, too (:58). The way she can close her 200 free – she can do the same in the 200 back. She came home in :31 today.
Mollie is still learning how to swim fast, her 200 free was only 1.5 sec away from her best & her 100 .5 off her best. I can see Mollie swimming 1.44 low & 52.mid this or next year.
I assume you mean 1:54. A 1:44 would be pretty bloody amazing if she could pull that off!
Yes, if Mollie could get down to 1.44, she’d have the WR for many years to come.
Yes I did mean 1.54s.
Who is the coach at Chandler now?
Pretty sure still Raleigh in terms of the high performance guys.
59.7 —> 2:07 flat doesn’t really translate. 🤔
At Tokyo Olympics Zac swam 1.00.05 in the 100 br. heats (and he didn’t advance to the semis) and 2.06.38 to win gold in the 200 br.: huge 200 (classy) specialist.
And a couple of 58.8s in the relays.
gyurta was 59.5 and 2:07.2 in london