2024 AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIC TRIALS
Day 3 of the 2024 Australian Olympic Swimming Trials kick off Wednesday morning. The meet has been a story of two teams. The bona fide superstars, like Mollie O’Callaghan, have been having a collective big meet, whereas with uncommon exceptions, the remainder of the sphere, together with the nearly-theres, have struggled to recover from the hurdle and make noise.
Wednesday’s races will likely be loaded with stars. That features the ladies’s 200 free, the place the defending Olympic Champion Ariarne Titmus will sq. off with the World Report holder Mollie O’Callaghan.
Each swimmers have thrown down electrical occasions earlier within the meet. Titmus was .06 seconds away from her World Report within the 400 free in 3:55.44 whereas O’Callaghan threw down one of many quickest 100 backs in historical past in 57.88, which isn’t even an occasion she is prone to swim on the Olympic Video games.
There may be likewise some meat on the back-end of that peloton, with 12-or-so swimmers combating for six spots within the girls’s 800 free relay.
The lads’s 800 free heats is not going to function the 2023 Worlds silver medalist Sam Brief, the occasion’s predominant headliner, as solely the early heats of the occasions will likely be raced in prelims.
The lads’s 50 free will likely be one other burner, with Cam McEvoy, the shock return-to-form 2023 World Champion, seeking to safe his spot at a 4th-straight Olympics. Isaac Cooper, who missed the Australian Olympic commonplace within the 100 again on Tuesday, will battle with Kyle Chalmers and Thomas Nowakowski for the 2nd spot. Cooper’s coaching has been hyper-focused on sprinting, so this will likely be his second to shine.
The lads’s 200 fly would be the place to scratch-and-claw: Bowen Gough is the highest seed in 1:56.01, however somebody might want to discover a 1:54.97 to earn an Olympic nomination. It’s commonplace for Australia to have a number of empty occasions on the Olympic Video games, typically lined for by the unimaginable brightness of their high stars, and the lads’s 200 stroke races have been a spot of weak point for this system at previous Trials meets as effectively.
Girls’s 200 Freestyle – Heats
- World Report – 1:52.85, Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS), 2023
- Australian Report – 1:52.85, Mollie O’Callaghan, 2023
- Oceanic Report – 1:52.85, Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS), 2023
- Commonwealth Report – 1:52.85, Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS), 2023
- Swim Australia OQT – 1:56.49
High 8 qualifiers:
- Ariarne Titmus — 1:55.50
- Mollie O’Callaghan — 1:55.68
- Lani Pallister — 1:56.54
- Jamie Perkins — 1:56.75
- Brianna Throssell — 1:56.89
- Shayna Jack — 1:56.98
- Meg Harris — 1:57.52
- Brittany Castelluzzo — 1:57.56
World document holder O’Callaghan cruised to a straightforward 1:55.68 within the first warmth (although she did shut in a 28.40 closing 50), whereas Lani Pallister adopted her in a time of 1:56.54. Additionally sneaking into the ultimate from this warmth is Brittany Castelluzo, who went sub-1:58 for the primary time in her profession and eighth completed general. However the quickest time of the morning got here from O’Callaghan’s membership teammate Ariarne Titmus, who clocked a 1:55.50 to win the second warmth. Behind her was {the teenager} Jamie Perkins who went 1:56.75 and improved upon her finest time of 1:57.13 to go sub-1:57 for the primary time, in addition to veteran Brianna Throssell who clocked a 1:56.89 and is seeking to bounce again after lacking the Olympic qualifying time within the 100 fly. Headed into finals, Perkins will likely be in a really robust place to qualify for her first senior worldwide staff.
Shayna Jack received the third and closing circle-seeded warmth with a time of 1:56,98, a bit over a second off her finest time. Beneath 1:58 in that warmth as effectively have been Meg Harris (1:57.52) and Kaylee McKeown (1:57.96). There have been 4 swimmers beneath 1:58 who didn’t make it out of the heats, displaying simply how deep Australian freestyle is. Notable swimmers who missed finals embrace McKeown, 2023 worlds prelims swimmer Kiah Melverton who completed twelfth with a 1:58.37, in addition to Tokyo 4×200 free relay finals swimmer Leah Neale, who went 2:00.10 and completed seventeenth.
Abbey Connor dropped over a second from her entry time within the 200 free, going 1:58.54 to complete thirteenth. Whereas she was by no means a contender to qualify for Paris within the 200 free, her swim is an efficient signal for her 200 fly, the place she is seeded second with a time of two:06.59.
Males’s 800 Freestyle — Early Heats
- World Report – 7:32.11, Zhang Lin (CHN), 2009
- Australian Report – 7:37.76, Sam Brief, 2023
- Oceanic Report – 7:37.76, Sam Brief (AUS), 2023
- Commonwealth Report – 7:37.76, Sam Brief (AUS), 2023
- Swim Australia OQT – 7:45.80
Males’s 50 Freestyle — Heats
- World Report — 20.91, Cesar Cielo (BRA), 2009
- Australian Report – 21.06, Cameron McEvoy (AUS), 2023
- Oceanic Report – 21.06, Cameron McEvoy (AUS), 2023
- Commonwealth Report – 21.06, Cameron McEvoy (AUS), 2023
- Swim Australia OQT – 21.88
Males’s 200 Butterfly — Heats
- World Report — 1:50.34, Kristof Milak (HUN), 2022
- Australian Report — 1:54.46, Nick D’Arcy, 2009
- Oceanic Report – 1:54.15, Moss Burmester, 2009
- Commonwealth Report — 1:52.96, Chad Le Clos, 2012
- Swim Australia OQT — 1:54.97
Para Swimming Highlights
