World Champion Cameron McEvoy Turns In 22.00 50 Free At Queensland Prep Meet

2023 QUEENSLAND LC PREPARATION MEET #1

Fresh off his decisive performance to take gold in the men’s 50m free at this year’s World Championships, Cameron McEvoy raced at the 2023 Queensland Long Course Preparation Meet in his native Australia.

29-year-old McEvoy wound up on top of the splash n’ dash podium, producing a time of 22.00 in the timed final.

The Somerville House Aquatics star beat the field by nearly half a second, with Somerset’s Thomas Nowakowski next in line in a mark of 22.46 while Ipswich Grammar’s Jayden Allum rounded out the top 3 in 23.33.

This event was McEvoy’s sole entry at the competition, although the Queensland Championships are on the horizon for December.

McEvoy is enjoying quite the career resurgence. After several quiet years which saw the veteran well off his personal bests, McEvoy ripped a time of 21.06 to not only take World Championships gold but become the 4th-best performer in history in the process.

McEvoy won his Fukuoka race by 0.51 seconds, which is the largest margin of victory ever in a men’s 50 free World Championships final. Previously, the largest margin of victory came when Dressel won the event by 0.41 seconds in 2019.

Former World Record holder Zac Stubblety-Cook was also in the water today, taking on the men’s 50m and 100m breaststroke events.

The 24-year-old Olympic medalist earned gold in the 100m in a time of 1:00.14, splitting 28.56/31.58 in the process. In the shorter distance, ZSC settled for silver. His time of 28.64 wasn’t enough to catch Southport swimmer Nash Wilkes who wound up at the wall first in 28.33.

Chandler teammate Ella Ramsay also dove in on multiple occasions to kick off her campaign. The 19-year-old punched a winning result of 1:09.81 to top the women’s 100m breaststroke podium while her 50m breast outing of 32.92 was also good enough for gold.

Additional Notes

  • Brisbane Grammar’s Gemma Cooney held off Chandler’s Elizabeth Dekkers in the women’s 50m free. Cooney clocked 26.55 while Dekkers hit 26.76 for silver. Dekkers earned silver in the 200m fly at this year’s World Championships.
  • Dekkers also raced in another off-event of the 400m free where the 19-year-old put up a winning result of 4:17.82.
  • The men’s 200m fly saw Bowen Gough of Griffith University earn gold, turning in a time of 2:01.32 as the top performer.
  • Mark Nikolaev was the top 100m backstroker for the men, hitting 54.53 to get to the wall first.

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ddd
1 year ago

Looks like he’s not wearing Hydro X

Aus swim fan
1 year ago

The meet was a qualifying meet rather than a championship meet so no finals or medals were actually awarded.

Scuncan Dott v2
1 year ago

ZSC being slower in his 50 than in the first 50 of his 100 is so ZSC

Sub13
Reply to  Scuncan Dott v2
1 year ago

Yeah it’s crazy. His 100 PB is only 2 seconds faster than his fastest opening split for his 200.

That’s the equivalent to MOC opening her 200 in a 54.0. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone opening a 200 in under 55 low.

Nick the biased Aussie
1 year ago

I thought Cam would be sub 22, but an 8:30am start is rough.

Sub13
Reply to  Nick the biased Aussie
1 year ago

Yeah and it’s literally his only race. No heats and finals, he’s entered in one single 50 event so he obviously wouldn’t have rested at all for it.

Troyy
Reply to  Nick the biased Aussie
1 year ago

For sure he’ll go 21 at QLD Champs.

Fukuoka Gold
1 year ago

ZSC literally has only one speed

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Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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