Emma McKeon Continues To Shine In Brisbane, Posts World #2 200m Freestyle
Emma McKeon Continues To Shine In Brisbane, Posts World #2 200m Freestyle
Tuesday finals at the 2017 Australian Swimming Championships featured a strong swim from Emma McKeon in the 200m freestyle with a 1:55.68. Mitch Larkin posted a 53.54 in the 100m backstroke.
Emma McKeon was certainly the brightest of the bunch at the Australian Swimming Championships on Tuesday in Brisbane, Australia. The 22-year-old won her second event of the meet, the 200m freestyle, with a SALWQT (Swimming Australia Ltd. World Champs Qualifying Time) of 1:55.68 -- the second-fastest time in the world this year. Only Michelle Coleman of Sweden has been faster. Coleman posted a 1:55.64 just three days ago at the Swim Open Stockholm.
McKeon was the only swimmer in Tuesday's finals session to earn a qualifying time for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on July 14-30. See the times standards below:
Other notable performances include Mitch Larkin's 100m backstroke. Larkin posted a 53.54, which lifts him into third in the 2017 world rankings -- Jiayu Xu of China and Matt Grevers of the United States are ahead of him currently with a 53.02 and 53.31, respectively. Now, this swim is certainly subpar for Larkin's own standards. He was a 52.54 at this meet last year (which served as Australia's Olympic Trials) and then went on to post a 52.43 in the final at Rio, just missing the podium in fourth place.
Fortunately for Larkin, he has already qualified for Australia's World Championship team thanks to his 1:56.66 200m backstroke Sunday night. That time is also well off his peak performance. Larkin was the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in this event behind Ryan Murphy with a time of 1:53.96. The Aussie holds a lifetime best of 1:53.17 from 2015.
At the discretion of Swimming Australia, Larkin can be allowed to swim the 100m backstroke in Budapest given his qualification in the 200m back.
McKeon was the only swimmer in Tuesday's finals session to earn a qualifying time for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on July 14-30. See the times standards below:
Other notable performances include Mitch Larkin's 100m backstroke. Larkin posted a 53.54, which lifts him into third in the 2017 world rankings -- Jiayu Xu of China and Matt Grevers of the United States are ahead of him currently with a 53.02 and 53.31, respectively. Now, this swim is certainly subpar for Larkin's own standards. He was a 52.54 at this meet last year (which served as Australia's Olympic Trials) and then went on to post a 52.43 in the final at Rio, just missing the podium in fourth place.
Fortunately for Larkin, he has already qualified for Australia's World Championship team thanks to his 1:56.66 200m backstroke Sunday night. That time is also well off his peak performance. Larkin was the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in this event behind Ryan Murphy with a time of 1:53.96. The Aussie holds a lifetime best of 1:53.17 from 2015.
At the discretion of Swimming Australia, Larkin can be allowed to swim the 100m backstroke in Budapest given his qualification in the 200m back.