Australian Champs, Day Four Prelims: Kyle Chalmers Heating Up Waters in 100 Freestyle

Kyle Chalmers of Australia prepares to compete in the 100m Freestyle Men Final during the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 27rd, 2023.

Australian Champs, Day Four Prelims: Kyle Chalmers Heating Up Waters in 100 Freestyle

By Nicole Jeffery

Rio Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers will look for a first sub-48 100m freestyle in the final after putting together a sharp qualifier of 48.08 in today’s preliminaries at the Australian Open Championships on the Gold Coast.

Chalmers has never broken 48 seconds at the outdoor Gold Coast Aquatic Centre but is confident of breaking that hoodoo after setting a personal best 50m freestyle of 21.98 yesterday.

His performances already this week suggest that he is thriving under coach Ash Delaney, having upended his life and moved from Adelaide to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland following the unexplained removal of his long-term coach Peter Bishop from his position last month.

Chalmers said it had been a big adjustment but that he was enjoying his new surroundings.

“I’m a very social person, Adelaide is a very easy and safe place for me – I have all my friends, I have my family, I have a job in Adelaide,” he said.

“I’ve lived there forever really since leaving Port Lincoln. I live with all my friends really and they’re at my house al the time so adapting to life without them has been different.

“But it’s been really nice also, I’ve had time for myself to watch movies or play PlayStation and be away from all the noise and distraction.

“In Queensland I’m not getting noticed at all so I kind of just live a casual normal lifestyle which has been really fun and beneficial.”

That is showing in the pool. He was more than .4 of a second faster than the next best qualifier in the preliminaries, SOPAC’s Will Yang (48.49), who is making a strong comeback after major surgery last year to remove a benign tumour in his spine.

Jamie Jack, the younger brother of Shayna, (48.76), Jack Cartwright (48.80) and Kai Taylor (48.82) and Zac Incerti (48.84) were the other men under 49 seconds in the preliminaries. The first three train together at St Peters Western under coach Dean Boxall.

National 200m freestyle champion Flynn Southam, 18, qualified only seventh fastest (49.07) but he is dealing with a stress fracture in his lower back that he thinks has flared due to growing pains. He has gained two centimetres and five kilograms in the last six months.

Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus cruised through the 200m freestyle heats following her sub-4-minute 400m last night, winning her heat in 1:57.52, to qualify third fastest.

Her training partner at St Peters Western, world record-holder Mollie O’Callaghan set the pace (1:56.60), with Shayna Jack (1:57.52) and Lani Pallister (1:57.79) also under 1:58, setting up another humdinger of a final.

New world 400m individual medley champion Lewis Clareburt has crossed the ditch (the nickname for the Tasman Sea, which separates New Zealand and Australia) in search of quality competition and will find it in former world champion Daiya Seto, currently training under Michael Bohl at Griffith University.

Seto was the top qualifier for the 400m individual medley final, clocking 4:17.45, while Clareburt was a comfortable winner of the other heat in 4:18.96. Australian champion Brendon Smith elected to swim the 200m butterfly heats instead, as he prepares for the Olympic trials in June.

All the action was in the first heat in the 200m butterfly preliminaries, as Bowen Gough qualified fastest (2:00.46) from Lucas Humeniuk (2:01.42) and Caio Gallo (2:02.05).

Meanwhile, triple Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown cruised through the 200m backstroke heats in 2:09.19, and will face the next generation in the final. Teenaged world medallists Iona Anderson (2:11.84) and Jaclyn Barclay (2:11.88) were the other heat winners and shape as McKeown’s closest challengers in the final.

Australia’s most decorated Olympian Emma McKeon led the field into the 100m butterfly final, qualifying fastest in 57.06, from Alexandria Perkins (57.57) and national 200m butterfly champion Elizabeth Dekkers (58.92), to round out the final preliminary session.

Finals start at 18:00 AEST.

EVENT LINKS:

SWIMMING AUSTRALIA EVENT PAGE

2024 AUSTRALIAN OPEN AND MC RESULTS

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