AUSTRALIAN TRIALS, Day 3, Heats: Ariarne Titmus And Mollie O’Callaghan Headline All-Star Cast Into 200 Metres Freestyle final; Kaylee McKeown Misses Top Eight

Athletes of Team Australia celebrate after winning the gold medal in the 4x200m Freestyle Relay Women Final with a New World Record during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 27th, 2023.

RAISING THE BAR: Brianna Throssell, Mollie O'Callaghan, Shayna Jack and Ariarne Titmus produced one of world swimming's historical moments, four swimmers from the same club, St Peters Western, winning World Championship gold in Fukuoka last year and in world record time. Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto.

AUSTRALIAN TRIALS, Day 3, Heats: Ariarne Titmus And Mollie O’Callaghan Headline All-Star Cast Into 200 Metres Freestyle final; Kaylee McKeown Misses Top Eight

Defending Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus and world record holder Mollie O’Callaghan will lead an all-star cast into tonight’s 200m freestyle final – the feature event on night three of the Trials for Paris at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre.

Titmus, as she did in the heats of the 400m on day one, zoomed through the first 100m on world record pace – backing off to clock the fastest qualifying time of 1:55.50.

After O’Callaghan had won the opening heat, cruising into the wall in 1:55.68.

The two best in the world are two of five members of Dean Boxall’s St Peters Western super group – into the top eight -with Jamie Perkins (1:56.75) the fourth fastest; Brianna Throssell (1:56.89) fifth and Shayna Jack (1:56.98) sixth.

Others to qualify are 400m freestyle qualifier Lani Pallister (Griffith University, QLD; Coach Michael Bohl)third fastest in 1:56.54, Meg Harris (Rackley, QLD) seventh 1:57.52 and Brittany Casteluzzo (Tea Tree Gully/SASI, SA; Coach: Craig Stewart) eighth in 1:57.56.

Titmus, O’Callaghan, Jack and Throssell formed the all-St Peters Western Australian team that won World’s gold in Fukuoka last year – in world record time.

Among the high-profile casualties include already qualified (200IM and 100m backstroke) Kaylee McKeown(Griffith University, QLD; Coach Michael Bohl) 11^th in 1:57.96 – 0.40 behind eighth place and fellow Olympians Kiah Melverton (St Peters Western, QLD) 12^th in 1:58.37; Leah Neale (Chandler, QLD) 17^th in 2:00.10 and Tamsin Cook (Propulsion, VIC) 18^th in 2:00.84.

Melverton was in the Australian team that set a new world record at the 2022 Commonwealth Games while both Neale and Cook have won Olympic silver and bronze in the last two Games, 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo respectively – such is the extraordinary depth in Australia’s women’s team – arguably the best in the world.

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Kanga1

2 days ago

So two girls break the World Record in one race! Not bad from a country of only 26 million people! I wonder how a Super Power over 13 times our size with 341 million, bebefitting from the collegiate’s bountiful largesse and the immense money of unlimited sponsorship, will respond?

Kanga1

2 days ago

For fun I split the entire Aussie 200m Final into two separate Aussie teams evenly matched.
Although not close to a WR (7:37:50), they’d swim 7:41:04 & 7:41:12 respectively.
Compared to the USA team’s 7:41;38 (Silver) and China’s 7:44.40 (Bronze) from 2023 at Fukuoka!

Kanga1

2 days ago

Reply to Kanga1

That’s flat.

Kanga1

2 days ago

Reply to Kanga1

Ofcourse the top 4 would break the WR with 7:36:02, flat starts!

Kanga1

1 day ago

Reply to Kanga1

Minus 1,5 for the relay splits. Easily defeats the US!