Big day for Jessica Ashwood, James Magnussen loses to Tae Hwan Park

SYDNEY, Australia, March 1. IT was again a day of fast swimming in Sydney, Australia on day two of the NSW State Championships and aside from Australian local Emily Seebohm and Japan’s Kanako Watanabe, it was again Korean Tae Hwan Park who stole the show.

However, it was Jessica Ashwood who started off the day with a 4:05.01 in the women’s 400m freestyle. Just a day after posting the world’s best time of the year in the 800m freestyle, Ashwood’s time in the 400 put her at second best this year. She won the race ahead of Remy Fairweather and Kylie Palmer. Fairweather’s time of 4:07.79 was the fifth fastest this year and Palmer’s 4:09.38 placed her eigth in 2014.

The next highlight was set by Watanabe in the women’s 200m breastroke. She finished in 2:22.46, a world’s best this year. Runa Imai, also from Japan, finished second with a time of 2.24.73 which places her fourth this year. Third of the race was Taylor McKeown with a time of 2.25.48 which is two seconds off of the second world’s best time she posted in Perth. Fourth placed Tessa Wallace swam to a 2:26.87 which places her tenth in 2014.

It was then time for the big show as Australian superstar James Magnussen and Tae Hwan Park faced each other in the men’s 200m freestyle. And it looked much like Magnussen was going to reel in his second win of the meet after he had already won the 100m freestyle on the previous day and went out fast with a first split of 23.89, compared to McEvoy’s 24.94 and Park’s Park’s 25.01. At 150m Magnussen split with a time of 1:18.56, ahead of Park and Cameron McEvoy. But on the final lap, Park switched on the turbo and, with a 26.98 on the final 50, hit the wall first with a time of 1:46.05. Magnussen was also taken over by James McEvoy who finished in 1:46.83. Magnussen then finished third with a time of 1:47.69. This swim made Park second fastest in the world this year behind France’s Yannick Agnel. James Magnussen is now sixth fastest in 2014 and Thomas Fraser-Holmes who finished the race fourth with a time of 1:48.07 is just behind Magnussen as seventh in 2014.

In the men’s 200m IM, Daniel Tranter swam to a third fastest time of this year when he hit the wall at 1:59.06. He finished ahead of James Justin who posted a 2:00.91 (tenth fastest this year) and Kenneth To who finished in 2:01.49.

You can find all the results from day two of the NSW State Championships here.

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