Australian World Championship Time Trials: David McKeon Posts Personal Best With Eyes on Olympic Trials

By Ian Hanson, Chief Australian Correspondent

ADELAIDE, South Australia, June 30. ONE of Australian swimming's rising stars, David McKeon again showed why he will be one to watch at next year's Olympic Trials in Adelaide after winning today's World Championship 200-meter freestyle relay time trial at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre.

The 18-year-old son of two-time Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ron McKeon, clocked a personal-best time of 1:48.74 – just 0.24secs short of the 1:48.50 required to win selection on the team for Shanghai. (Based on the fifth-placed finisher at this year's Australian Trials).

McKeon, a late bloomer, had made a splash at this year's Australian Championships when he led the qualifiers into the 400m freestyle final, only to finish sixth.

He struggled to back up for the 200m freestyle heats and faded to finish 21st in a time of 1:53.00, before winning the 17-18 years National Age gold medal for 200m in a personal best of 1:49.87.

McKeon, who is coached by his father Ron at the Wests Illawarra club in Wollongong, south of Sydney, trailed St Peters Western's Ned McKendry through the first 150m of today's trial, before unleashing a sizzling 27.37 final 50m.

McKendry had led through the first 100m in 53.18 to McKeon's 53.41 but at the 150m mark, McKeon had bridged the gap to 0.16.

The taller McKeon motored down the final 50m to edge out McKendry, 1:48.74 to 1:49.01 with 2009 World Championship team member Robert Hurley third in 1:49.58.

They were followed by 2010 Australian champion and Beijing relay bronze medallist Nick Ffrost (Southport Olympic) in 1:49.90, his Glenn Baker-trained teammate Cameron McEvoy (1:50.16), Luke Kerswell (Southside Aquatics) 1:50.49 and Miami's 27-year-old dual Olympian and Ffrost's team mate from Beijing Pat Murphy (1:50.80) with Kristopher Taylor (Southside Wesley, WA) rounding out the top eight in 1:51.28.

The goal time in the women's time trial of 1:57.59 (Blair Evans 5th placed time from Trials) was a tall order with victory going to 2009 World Championship relay swimmer, 18-year-old Ellen Fullerton (Chandler) in 2:00.42 from 16-year-old National Age golden girl and team mate Mikkayla Sheridan (2:01.77) and Brothers pair Brittany Elmslie (2:01.92) and Darthea Clydesdale (2:03.06).

There were some slick butterfly time trials too with Southport's World Championship team member Sam Ashby clocking 52.44 – 0.04 faster than his silver medal winning time and following Geoff Huegill's 53.34 from last night.

Ashby's Southport team mate Chris Wright, who missed this year's Australian Championships with injury, clocked a very promising 52.69 to signal that he is getting back close to his best.

"It's been an interesting couple of sessions really," Australia's National head coach Leigh Nugent said in a Swimming Australia press release. "Last night in the 100m freestyle events there was some pretty sharp swimming and to see Marieke Guehrer go 54.2 seconds was a good performance. With Kyle Richardson going under the time as well, we'll now be considering those two swimmers for the team for Shanghai. It was always going to be a tall order for Libby Trickett to post a time under 55 seconds, but 55.6 is a terrific starting point for her, and this is just the beginning of her coming back into competition. It won't be that long, once she gets used to racing again, that she'll be able to reduce her times and start getting under that 55 barrier again, and she has a great chance to do that here over the next three days at the Short Course championships."

The 2011 Australian Short Course Championships will start tomorrow morning from 9am for heats, with finals broadcast live and exclusively on ONE from 6.00pm (5.30pm on Sunday) Eastern Standard Time.

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