By Retta Race on SwimSwam
2024 BRISBANE SENIOR METRO CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 2024 Brisbane Senior Metro Championships concluded today with several Aussie Olympians in the water. This meet is positioned ahead of next month’s Australian National Championships and the all-important Aussie Olympic Trials on the calendar for June.
Freestyle ace Sam Short dove in for multiple races, kicking off his campaign with a victory in the 400m free.
20-year-old Short fired off a time of 3:45.17 as the sole sub-3:50 swimmer of the field. Tommy Neill was next in line with a time of 3:51.43.
Short was the 2023 World Championships medalist in this event, firing off a time of 3:40.68 in a thriller of a race in Fukuoka where he beat Tunisian Olympic champion Ahmed Hanfaoui by just .02.
Neill got the upper hand in the men’s 200m freestyle here, however, with the 21-year-old Rackley swimmer logging 1:48.11. That sneaked to the wall .16 ahead of Short’s 1:48.27.
Short wrapped up his meet with a gold in the 800m free, clocking a time of 7:48.73.
After her impressive 100m freestyle victory on day 1, Rackley’s Meg Harris doubled up with gold in the women’s 50m free.
Harris produced an effort of 24.72 to beat the field by over a second, with Lily Price getting to the wall behind her in 25.74.
Harris owns a lifetime best of 24.29 in this splash n’ dash, a result she produced at last year’s Sydney Open. She also took the women’s 200m free event at 1:58.24 as the sole sub-2:00 performer in the race today.
Price went on to win the women’s 19&O 100m butterfly in a new Brisbane Record of 57.64. Opening in 26.96 and closing in 30.68, Price’s outing overtook the previous record legend Lisbeth (Libby) Lenton posted well over a decade ago in 2008.
Price’s heats time also beat the record, with Price posting 57.91 as the top seed in the earlier round. Her 57.64 represents a new lifetime best, slicing .14 from her prior career quickest.
21-year-old Price also topped the women’s 50m fly podium in a season-best 26.47, getting to the wall .22 ahead of Harris’ 27.69.
New mom Emily Seebohm raced in the heats of the women’s 100m back, putting up a solid swim of 1:02.36 before opting out of the final.
In her stead, Bronte Job grabbed the gold, logging 1:00.63 to set a new Brisbane Record. She held the prior mark at 1:01.37 from last year’s edition of this competition.
Job also got the edge over Seebohm in the 50m back, with the former posting 28.06 to the latter’s silver medal-worthy 29.31.
Seebohm also contested the women’s 200m back where the Olympic medalist representing St. Margaret’s hit 2:16.28 for the gold just months after giving birth to her first child.
Additional Notes
- Chandler’s Leah Neale topped the women’s 400m free in a time of 4:13.99, less than a second ahead of Yeronga Park’s open water ace Chelsea Gubecka. Gubecka settled for silver in 4:14.48 while Ella Ramsay also landed on the podium in 4:15.72 for bronze.
- Gubecka went on to claim gold in the 1500m free in a result of 16:38.97.
- Elloise Doolan established a new Brisbane Record en route to winning the women’s 200m fly. She logged 2:11.50 in the 17-year-old category, handily overtaking Gemma Cooney‘s old mark of 2:13.25 from 2017.
- 2016 Olympic silver medalist Maddie Groves raced in the women’s 19&O 200m fly event, posting 2:18.13 for silver. That sat exactly 5 seconds behind winner Laura Taylor who clocked 2:13.13 as the gold medalist.
- 16-year-old Joshua Conias hit a time of 22.69 as the winner of his age group’s 50m free. That erased his own Brisbane Record of 23.18 from January. The teen owns a PB of 22.69 from this year.
SwimSwam: Sam Short, Meg Harris & More Put Up Solid In-Season Swims In Brisbane
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