Kaylee McKeown On Song For Medley After Breaststroke-Freestyle Double at Victorian State Championships
Dual Olympic backstroke champion Kaylee McKeown has tonight served notice of a pending 200m individual medley attack after winning a rare double –on the opening night of the Victorian State Open Championships.
In the space of 10 minutes, the world’s best backstroker ripped out her best ever 100m breaststroke time – clocking 1:06.86 – to barnstorm her way into the Australian All-Time Top Ten – in the stroke that so often holds the key in IM swimming.
And with hardly any time to warm down or catch her breath she was back in the water, winning the blue ribband 100m freestyle in a respectable 54.66 – grabbing a 100m breaststroke-freestyle championship double rarely seen at major State Championship meets.
And it all points to Sunday’s 200IM for McKeown who claimed a rare feat in 2022 – winning the 200m backstroke at the World Long Course, World Short Course and the Commonwealth Games – in one calendar year and the 100-200m doubles at both the Commonwealth and World SC meets while also claiming IM success.
She certainly served notice that the 200IM was very much a part of her program moving forward – finishing 2022 with silver medals to Alex Walsh (USA) in the World LC and to Canadian wunderkind Summer McIntosh at the Commonwealth Games and bronze behind US pair Katie Douglass and Walsh at the World Short Course. All coming after her showpiece Olympic treble in Tokyo in 2021 when she won the backstroke double and played her part in the gold medal winning 4x100m medley relay.
Her own Australian All-Comers Record (the fastest time swum in Australia by an Australian) stands at 2:08.19 swum at the Olympic Trials in 2021 – and the event she eventually withdraw from in Tokyo – a result of her already crowded program – and the desire to accomplish that backstroke double.
While 2008 dual Olympic 200 and 400IM champion Stephanie Rice still holds the Australian record at 2:07.03 – and the world record held by Hungarian “Iron Lady” Katinka Hosszu stands at 2:06.12.
Tonight’s breaststroke win must have been a tough pill to swallow for the Smith sisters – Mikayla (Griffith University, QLD) in 1:09.89 and Reidel (Nunawading, VIC) 1:10.05 – finished in second and third respectively – the girls both dominant in breaststroke events at the Victorian States for many years.
And the fact that brother Brendon Smith (Griffith University, QLD) – the Tokyo bronze medallist in the 400IM in 2021 – is also Kaylee’s boyfriend. Brendon was also in the water tonight – taking bronze behind Nunawading’s rising star William Petric (1:59.75) and fellow Olympian, Carlile NSW’s Se-Bom Lee (2:00.59) in the 200m butterfly.
In other events, Tokyo Olympic relay bronze medallist and five-time World SC medallist Isaac Cooper (St Andrews, QLD) clocked 24.91 to beat New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games gold medallist Andrew Jeffcoat (25.64) and Australia’s five-time Commonwealth Games medallist Bradley Woodward (Mingara, NSW) 25.71 in the men’s 50m backstroke.
Commonwealth Games relay gold medallist William Yang (Sydney Olympic Swim Club) looked sharp in his 100m freestyle win in 48.93 from 19-year-old Kiwi Cameron Gray (49.77) with 21-year-old St Andrews QLD’s Jack Carr third in 50.02
While the women’s 800m freestyle saw Tokyo 1500m finalist Maddy Gough (Carlile, NSW) clock 8:34.33 to score a comfortable win over Olympic teammate Tamsin Cook (Melbourne Vicentre, VIC) 8:44.95. New Zealand’s 16-year-old Brooke Bennett, finished third in 9:08.11 – a name made famous in distance swimming of course by International Swimming Hall Of Famer, American Brooke Bennett, who won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in this event in 1996 and 2000 – also adding the 400m in ’96 in Atlanta.