Chalmers Impresses With 22.11 Lead-Off On Marion Relay At 2025 South Aussie States (original) (raw)
2025 SOUTH AUSTRALIA STATE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, January 17th – Sunday, January 19th
- SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
The 2025 South Australia State Open Championships saw day two unfold from the SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre.
26-year-old Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers was in the water once again, following up his near-lifetime best 50m free victory from yesterday with another impressive performance.
Leading off the Marion men’s 4x50m free relay, Chalmers fired off a split of 22.11 to set his squad up for success.
That was just a hair off the South Australian State Record he put on the books last night, courtesy of the 22.01 he logged for gold. The South Aussie’s PB remains at the 21.98 notched at the 2024 Australian Championships.
Marion’s relay collectivity clocked a time of 1:33.87 to break the SA Record, with Matthew Clifford hitting 23.45 on the 2nd leg, Ali Altiok posting 25.01 on the 3rd leg and Olympian Matt Temple finishing the race off in 23.30.
As a refresher, Chalmers returned to Marion after a pre-Olympic Games stint under coach Ash Delaney at St. Andrew’s.
22-year-old Gabriel Gorgas of Manly Swimming Club landed on the podium twice today, grabbing gold in the men’s 100m free and 200m IM.
In the former, Gorgas touched in a time of 50.45, just off his lifetime best of 50.24, to get the edge over Lachlan Jackett-Simpson. Jackett-Simpson settled for silver in 50.48 while Clancy Luscombe rounded out the podium in 52.30.
As for the 200m IM, Gorgas dominated the field with a winning effort of 2:01.65 to get to the wall nearly 8 seconds ahead of the pack. That registered a new personal best for the New South Wales swimming, slicing .25 off his previous PB of 2:01.90 from the 2022 Australian Championships.
15-year-old Sienna Toohey doubled up on her 200m breast gold from day one with a solid 100m breast outing to collect more hardware.
Toohey of Alsbury Amateur turned in a time of 1:07.69 to represent the sole performer of the field under the 1:12 threshold.
Toohey opened in 31.58 and closed in 36.11 to come within striking distance of her fastest-ever time of 1:07.01 from last year’s Olympic Trials. That groundbreaking performance erased Olympic champion Leisel Jones’ longstanding Australian Age Record of 1:07.49 from 2000.
But the Aussies weren’t the only ones making noise on day 2, as 18-year-old Olympian Mio Narita of Japan took the women’s 400m IM event.
Narita touched in a time of 4:40.38 as the sole swimmer under the 5:00 mark in the race. That’s a nice in-season swim from the teen who finished 6th in the event in Paris with a final time of 4:38.83.
Narita’s career-quickest mark remains at the 4:35.40 notched at the 2024 Japanese Olympic Trials. That rendered her the #3 performer on Japan’s all-time list.
Teammate Ai Soma also struck gold tonight, winning the women’s 50m fly.
Soma scored a time of 26.62 with 18-year-old Olivia Wunsch next to the wall in 26.76. Tea Tree Gully’s Brittany Castelluzzo bagged bronze in 27.28.
Soma owns a PB of 25.76 from 2022 to rank #2 among all-time Japanese performers while Wunsch of Carlile owns a personal best of 26.34 from last year.
Finally, 17-year-old Nao Shiota of Japan staked his claim on the men’s 100m fly but he wound up sharing the podium with 25-year-old Temple.
Both men touched in 53.20 to share the top of the podium followed by Joseph Hamson who logged 54.69 for bronze. Hamson of Knox Pymble won the 200m fly last night in 2:04.81.
Temple placed 7th in the 100m fly in Paris (51.10) despite entering the Olympics as a bona fide medal contender after posting an Australian record 50.25 at the 2023 Japan Open the preceding December.
Additional Winners
- 17-year-old Isabel Sheldrick of Fenix was the quickest women’s 100m backstroker, taking the event in 1:01.59. This was her 2nd gold of the meet as she won the 50m back last night in 29.27.
- Marius Boll produced a time of 2:01.86 to win the men’s 200m back race. He’s been as speedy as 1:59.44, a time he logged at last year’s Olympic Trials.
- Last night’s 100m breast victor, 23-year-old Taka Taniguchi of Japan, won the men’s 50m breast this evening in 27.70. That garnered gold ahead of Starplex’s James McKechnie who touched a fingernail behind in 27.76 for silver, repeating the 1-2 finish from the 100m.
- Castelluzzo succeeded in the women’s 200m free, posting 1:59.37 to lead the field. Ruka Takezawa, last night’s 400m free champion, was next in 1:59.98, the only other outing of the field under the 2:00 barrier. Castelluzzo broke through with a huge personal best of 1:56.77 at last year’s Australian Olympic Trials when she placed 7th overall.
- Braden Fyneman logged a time of 15:52.26 to win the men’s 1500m free by nearly 40 seconds. The 18-year-old Western Australian owns a personal best of 15:37.15 from last year’s Australian Age Championships.
- Cheltenham’s Madison Brand was the top women’s 1500m freestyler, putting up a time of 17:52.83 for the win. That’s just her second foray under the 18:00 barrier, with tonight’s outing pairing with her personal best of 17:44.54 from last year’s Victorian Age meet.
In This Story
Kyle Chalmers
About Retta Race
Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.