Sydney Short Course Sprints: Kyle Chalmers Blasts Off The Blocks With a 1:42.58 Prelims Swim In 200 Freestyle

kyle-chalmers-eo SwimBETTER kyle chalrmers

TESTING TIMES: Kyle Chalmers on the prowl in Sydney tonight. Photo Courtesy: eo Labs

Sydney Short Course Sprints: Kyle Chalmers Blasts Off The Blocks with A 1:42.58 prelims swim In The 200m Freestyle

Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers has wasted no time flying off the blocks at the Sydney Sprints Australian Short Course meet this morning clocking a solid 1:42.58 in the heats of the men’s 200m freestyle.

The 24-year-old, fresh from his gold medal swim in the 100m freestyle at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games was out in 23.68, split 49.68 at the 100m mark and coasted home in 52.90.

Who knows what he is capable of in tonight’s final, with the Commonwealth record shared between Canada’s Brent Hayden and Australian Olympic team mate Cam McEvoy at 1:40.80 and the world record at 1:39.37 to Germany’s Paul Biedermann and his own personal best of 1:40.82 swum in the Berlin World Cup in 2021.

A place in the Australian Dolphins team for December’s World Short Course Championships awaits.

The USA’s Luke Hobson, one of the stars of America’s Duel In The Pool victory clocked the second fastest heat time of 1:42.90 with Rackley’s Olympic bronze medallist from Tokyo, Tommy Neill (Rackley Swim Team) also clocking an encouraging pb of 1:42.90 which will put him back on the National team.

Madi Wilson (Marion, SA) looked the best of the girls in the 200m freestyle in 1:53.73 ahead of Lani Pallister (Griffith University) 1:55.45, St Peters Western rising star Mollie O’Callaghan (1:55.97) and Leah Neale (Chandler, QLD) 1:56.24.

The women’s backstroke heats saw visiting USA star Beata Nelson (57.03) top the qualifiers ahead of Australian trio, world long course record holder Griffith University’s Kaylee McKeown (57.57), the ever present Callaghan (58.05) and Bond’s world short course record holder Minna Atherton (58.17).

The men’s 100m backstroke sees Russian Mark Nikolaev, swimming for Bond University, clock the fastest heat swim of 50.79 ahead of Commonwealth Games silver and bronze medallist Bradley Woodward (Mingara, NSW) in a pb of 51.52 and Lewis Blackburn (St Andrews, QLD) 51.85.

Then followed Ty Harwell (Chandler) 51.97, Ben Armbruster (Bond) 52.45 and Olympian Isaac Cooper (Bundaberg, QLD) 52.70.

Other highlights included:

Australia’s premier breaststrokers Jenna Strauch (Miami, QLD) 1:05.78 and Chelsea Hodges (Southport, QLD) 1:06.05 in the women’s 100m breaststroke and Sam Williamson (Melbourne Vicentre) 57.82 in the men’s event – with his pb of 57.00 on notice tonight.

FINALS start time: 6pm (AEST)

TV STREAM DETAILS

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use