2023 SYDNEY OPEN & UNISPORT NATIONALS
Cameron McEvoy is on a roll.
After clocking the two fastest 50-meter freestyle times by an Australian since 2017 on Friday, the 28-year-old sprint specialist blazed his quickest 50 butterfly time in seven years at the 2023 Sydney Open on Sunday morning.
McEvoy registered a 23.67 to qualify second in the 50 fly prelims, reaching the wall a blink faster than his time from last month’s Australian Championships (23.68) and just a tenth off his personal-best 23.57 from the 2016 Australian Championships. Ben Armbruster, 21, went 23.45 to lead the 50 fly heats, four-tenths off his lifetime best from last month’s Australian Championships (23.05).
The men’s 200 free final could feature a fun battle between Flynn Southam (1:49.81), Matthew Temple (1:51.05), and Kyle Chalmers (1:51.51), though the 17-year-old Southam was more than a second faster than the 23-year-old Temple and 24-year-old Chalmers during prelims. Southam was just a few seconds off his personal-best 1:46.67 from last month’s Australian Championships.
28-year-old Madison Wilson posted a new season-best time of 53.63 in the 100 free, the only woman under 54 seconds during prelims. Meg Harris, 21, qualified second with a 54.08. Wilson and Harris’s lifetime bests are 52.76 and 52.92, respectively, both from the 2021 Australian Trials.
A pair of world record holders were also in action on Sunday morning.
Kaylee McKeown led the 200 back heats with a 2:14.50, just over a tenth ahead of Ingelborg Vassbakk Loeyning’s 2:14.62. When the 21-year-old McKeown broke the world record in this event two months ago at the New South Wales State Open Championships (2:03.14), she went 2:10.89 in prelims.
24-year-old Zac Stubblety-Cook took the top qualifying spot in the 200 breast with a 2:10.28, just about a second off his season-best time from last month’s Australian Championships. His lifetime best is the world-record 2:05.95 from last May.
Other top qualifiers from the final morning of the 2023 Sydney Open included 22-year-old Brendon Smith in the 400 IM (4:26.75), 22-year-old Brittany Castelluzzo in the 100 fly (59.76), 26-year-old Talara-Jade Dixon in the 50 breast (31.75), and 24-year-old Bradley Woodward in the 100 back (55.10).