Day 3 Finals Wrap 2025 Australian Open Championships

An effervescent Cam McEvoy is 21.48 seconds closer to the blueprint that he hopes will deliver a world record – and another Olympic gold.

In a Paris Dolphins’ gold medal reunion, McEvoy retained his 50m free national title – posting the second fastest time of the year – while Kaylee McKeown (pictured) scorched to 27.22 to maintain her dominance in the 50m backstroke.

Men’s 50m Freestyle:

McEvoy said: “I’m stoked with that time. I didn’t expect 21.4. I was 21.3 at (Olympic) Trials last year to put that in perspective.”

“I credit my swim this morning. I’ve been working a lot on my first 15m. I was third last to 15m in Paris, 0.2 behind Caeleb (Dressel) and the top guys. This morning in the heats I obliterated my 15m PB by more than 0.1 of a second and just spent the rest of the day on a high with that.

“I never thought I was a dive guy. I was definitely more of like the technique type of dude. But I lay out a plan for improving that, and then it actually happens, so that’s pretty cool. It’s a nice feeling.

“I can take my first 15m from this morning and marry it with my best 15m to 35m, and that’s a world record. Now I somehow need to find a way to do it at the same time.

“I’ve only had one three-week roster of swimming and … these results now are showing that we’re getting closer and closer to that blueprint. It’s really exciting.”

Jamie Jack (21.95), brother of Olympian Shayna, finished second to McEvoy to signal he has a serious chance ahead of Trials to make his first senior Dolphins team while Thomas Nowakowski (22.07) claimed bronze.

Women’s 50m Backstroke:

Meanwhile McKeown continued where she had left off, sweeping the backstroke sprint events to win gold in the 50m backstroke in 27.22. McKeown’s part-time surfing mate Mollie O’Callaghan finished second (27.51) with Amber George (28.24) third.

“The past couple months have been the hardest for me, especially with rehabilitation and I’m still working on that. I faced illness and a bad knee … I’m not fully there yet, it’s kind of like I’m kicking with one leg at the moment,” O’Callaghan said.

“It’s been frustrating, the build-up for this, and it’s just nice to come here and actually lean on my experience. I haven’t done that much training or main sessions, it’s all been quite modified and the process has been quite long. So, to come here and just swim for the sake of swimming with no pressure behind it or on the outcome is my main focus for the meet.

“I wanted to come here to Nationals and get my first race of the year out of the way and see where I was tracking along. I didn’t realise that my experience goes a long way.”

Women’s 400m Freestyle:

With godmother Dawn Fraser looking on, Lani Pallister smoked to victory in the 400m – her 4:02.34 too good for New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather (4:04.55) second and Jamie Perkins (4:06.29) third.

“I think that’s probably one of my fastest end season times … it was only point six off my best. So, I’ll take it,” Pallister said.

“This week for me is really a training week … I think a lot of the St Peters athletes didn’t think they would also be swimming such fast times because we are technically still in training but it’s really exciting that we are, especially going into Singapore World Championships.

“Compared to the 800 and 1500m freestyle, the 400 event is actually not a priority for me. I swim it to improve my 800 and 1500.”

Men’s 200m Individual Medley:

It was a sprint for gold between Australia and New Zealand in the men’s 200m individual medley.

Paris Olympian Will Petric, 20, led into the freestyle turn but New Zealand’s dual Olympian Lewis Clareburt, 25, charged the St Peters swimmer down in the final 50m to hit the wall first at 1:59.05.

Petric touched in half a second behind and won first in his Age group (1:59.40). David Schlicht, 25 – who trained under Michael Phelps‘ coach Bob Bowan in the US – won bronze (2:00.43).

Women’s 200m Breaststroke:

The burgeoning rivalry between Tara Kinder and Ella Ramsay was on full display with the pair going head to head for the fourth time this meet.

They left the rest of the field behind in the women’s 200m breaststroke and Kinder finished strong at 2:24.70, followed by Ramsay second at 2:25.34. Sienna Harben touched in third at 2:29.61.

Men’s 50m Backstroke Multi-Class:

In the Paris Paralympic Games, Ben Hance broke his own world record in the men’s 100m backstroke (S14) during the heats and later won gold, becoming the first swimmer to successfully defend the Paralympic title.

The 24-year-old dominated the men’s 50m backstroke multi-class tonight, winning his second national title of the meet with a time of 26.44.

His first title came in his pet event the 100m backstroke. S15 athlete Dylan Logan, 22, won silver and 15-year-old Liam Togher (S9) won bronze.

Men’s 100m Butterfly:

The Dolphins best butterflyer of the past two Olympics Matt Temple defended his national title with 51.51. While touching second behind Italian Thomas Ceccon (51.26), Temple was the first Australian home, so is awarded the national title, with Budapest Short Course Dolphin Harrison Turner next best (52.30).