McKeon Now Wears 200 Free World Rankings Crown – 1:55.56 | SwimSwam

By Retta Race on SwimSwam

NEW SOUTH WALES STATE OPEN C’SHIPS

• Thursday, March 18th – Sunday, March 21st
• Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center
• LCM (50m)
• Heats in evening (5 pm local)/Finals in morning (10 am local)
• Start List
• Day 1 Prelims/Day 1 Finals
• Day 2 Prelims/Day 2 Finals/Day 3 Prelims
• Results – Meet Mobile

Capping off a stellar meet here in New South Wales, 26-year-old Olympian Emma McKeon fired off the #1 time in the world in the women’s 200m freestyle.

After establishing herself as the 2nd-seeded swimmer behind Madi Wilson durig last night’s heats (1:59.23 to Wilson’s 1:58.77) Griffith’s McKeon unleashed a super quick time of 1:55.56 to beat Wilson by over a second in this morning’s final.

Opening in 55.95 and bringing it home in 59.61, McKeon’s 1:55.56 result tonight overtakes the previous season-leader in the world rankings, Yang Junxuan of China. Yang held a super quick 1:55.65 from January, but McKeon slid under that mark by .09 to wear the crown.

McKeon owns a lifetime best of 1:54.55 in this 2free event, a time she cracked at the 2019 World Championships Trials before dropping the event in Gwangju. Her time this morning checks-in as the 8th fastest time of this versatile Aussie’s career.

For her part, although Wilson settled for silver this morning, her speedy result of 1:56.85 ties the 2nd fastest time of the 26-year-old Marion swimmer’s career. Wilson has been as fast as 1:56.60 at this same meet last year, but still now becomes the 6th fastest swimmer in the world this season.

Another swimmer who tied the 2nd best time of her career in an event was 19-year-old Kaylee McKeown in this morning’s 200m IM field. The USC Spartan led the women’s heats last night in a cool 2:14.85 before digging deep to come up with a mighty 2:09.94 to climb atop the podium.

Splitting 28.54/32.95/37.47/30.98, McKeown’s effort sits 2nd only to her PB of 2:08.23 from last December’s Queensland Championships. That ranks the teen as the #1 swimmer in the world this season.

Additional Winners:

• Hunter’s Meg Bailey got her hand on the wall first in the women’s 200m fly, posting 2:10.39 for the gold.
• The men’s 100m fly saw Edward Marks get it done for gold in 52.90, the only sub-53 second time of the field. Olympian David Morgan was in the mix as the bronze medalist in 53.13, while backstroking ace Mitch Larkin posted 53.61 to rank 5th in the morning final.
• Georgia Bohl topped the women’s 50m breast field in 31.05 while Daniel Cave cruised to the 200m breast win in 2:15.61. Of note, the World Championships bronze medalist in this event, Matt Wilson, raced last night in the heats, collecting the top seed in 2:11.76 before opting out of this morning’s final.
• Jack Cartwright proved the quickest 50m freestyler, with the 22-year-old St. Peters Western athlete checking in at 22.33 while Cameron McEvoy and New Zealand’s Michael Pickett finished in 22.69 and 22.82 for silver and bronze, respectively.
• 19-year-old Se-Bom Lee topped the men’s 400m IM field in 4:23.83.
• Madi Wilson claimed gold in the 50m back in a time of 28.09, beating out Rockingham’s Holly Barratt by just .01 this morning.
• Mitch Larkin was this morning’s 100m back winner in 54.14.

Read the full story on SwimSwam: McKeon Now Wears 200 Free World Rankings Crown – 1:55.56