Emma McKeon Shines After Coaching Change

Photo Courtesy: Swimming Australia

They say a change is as good as a holiday but the only difference in Emma McKeon’s case is that her recent change in coaches certainly had nothing to do with a vacation.

Enjoying her swimming career is what her Olympic dream is all about – hence the move to trial under Brisbane-based Olympic coach Michael Bohl at the St Peters Western Podium Centre, and under one of international swimming’s most successful Olympic coaches.

The man who coached Stephanie Rice to triple Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008 is currently in charge of the golden girl of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games who showed in Canberra tonight she is very much on track for this year’s FINA World Championships in Kazan in July.

In a fun-filled atmosphere at the AIS Aquatic Centre, where the cream of the Australian and Japanese National Teams have come together for the first of two Swimming Australia Grand Prix Meets, McKeon landed three eye-catching wins – individual wins in the 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly and then the 4x50m medley relay.

The unique Teams format sees swimmers from both countries – opens and juniors – together in three teams led by Olympic legend Dawn Fraser and 1984 Olympic stars Mark Stockwell and Glenn Beringen.

And although her first coach, father Ron McKeon was a team mate of both Stockwell and Beringen’s in that team from the Games of ’84 in Los Angeles, it may well be great motivation for McKeon, who comes of age with her 21st on May 24, that she is a member of Team Fraser here as she goes about making a decision on her future.

McKeon, who certainly enjoyed success under coach Vince Raleigh at last year’s Commonwealth Games, where she won four gold and two bronze and was a member of the 4x100m world record breaking relay; won the 200m freestyle tonight in 1:57.97, taking it out hard in the opening 100m in 57.78 and swimming away with the win over Kylie Palmer (1:59.51) and Chihiro Igarashi (Japan) 2:00.72.

She was soon back in the water in the 100m butterfly, finishing narrowly behind Japan’s Natsumi Hoshi at the 50m mark, before racing to the lead and holding on to win in 58.99, ahead of Hoshi (59.02) and fellow Australian Brittany Elmslie (59.10).

In the last event of the evening McKeon swam the butterfly leg in the Team Fraser 4x50m medley relay alongside backstroker Madison Wilson, breaststroker Lorna Tonks and freestyler Bronte Campbell.

“It’s going really well (with Michael)… and I’m enjoying having Bohly as my coach and I get along with him well so it’s been good,” McKeon said.

“So I trialled from basically when I came back from my break (after trials in April) until around now and I’m racing again (at the) Japan Open next week and I’ll start to make my decision from now.

I was trying not to think about it too much in the weeks that I have been trialling and I want to make sure it’s the right decision so it’s perfect for next year.

Having my dad as my coach when I was at home, it’s definitely a big change to move away from that and Bohly being quite a close family friend makes it a lot easier and we get along.
Swimming is something that I’m only going to do well in if I enjoy it. I want to make sure that I am enjoying it all the way through to next year.”

The Australian girls continued their freestyle domination, with Cate Campbell (Team Beringen) 24.22 swimming away from sister Bronte (Team Fraser) 24.69 and Miki Uchida (Team Beringen) 25.51, in the 50m freestyle while Jessica Ashwood (Team Fraser) 8:34.25 won the 800m freestyle convincingly from Tamsin Cook (Team Stockwell) 8:48.41 and Japan’s Chihiro Igarashi (Team Fraser) 8:49.55.

Emma McKeon’s brother David put together a brilliant race to give team McKeon its third individual win of the evening in the 400m freestyle in a time of 3:52.86, ahead of Australian 400 and 1500m champion Mack Horton (3:54.66) and Japanese star Kosuke Hagino (3:54.76).

Meanwhile Team Fraser continued its domination with Shinri Shioura from Japan taking the honours in the men’s 100m freestyle with a time of 49.13. Second place went to Katsumi Nakamura (Stockwell) in 49.20 with Cameron McEvoy picking up points for team Beringen in third place with a time of 49.42.

Japan’s Ryosuke Irie picked up some much needed points for Team Beringen when he took out the men’s 100m backstroke in a time of 53.49, setting a new Grand Prix record in the process. Touching just behind and securing second place was Mitch Larkin (Stockwell) in 54.18 with Takeshi Kawamoto (Fraser) rounding out the top three in 54.51.

Japan’s Daiya Seto (Stockwell) was too strong in the men’s 400m individual medley, finishing over eight seconds clear of the rest of the field, touching first in a time of 4:14.18. The points for second and third place went to Team Fraser’s Kosuke Hagino (4:22.23) and Clyde Lewis (4:31.32).

The men’s 200m butterfly saw team Stockwell’s Masato Sakai take home the points for first place with a 1:58.96 to get the better of Nao Horomura (Beringen) in 1:59.35 and David Morgan (Stockwell) in 2:00.65.
At the end of the second session Team Fraser leads the Grand Prix pointscore on 511 from Team Stockwell (462) and Team Beringen (404).

2015 Swimming Australia Grand Prix #1, Live Results – Results

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World. To reach our audience, contact us at newsmaster@swimmingworld.com.

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