It's a knockout on Day 3 of Aus Open Water Champs

THE premise was to mix things up and that is exactly what Olympic pool swimmer Sam Short (pictured) did.

With a new medal event – the 3km knockout – making its debut at this year’s Australian Open Water Championships in Bunbury, Short gate crashed Singapore World Championships teammates Thomas Raymond (silver) and Kyle Lee (bronze) to win an historic gold.

Short is doing a big program in what is his maiden open water championships, swimming the gruelling 10km on the first day of racing in which he won bronze, the 3km knockout today and the 5km tomorrow.

But it is today’s fast and furious knockout event that has the former 400m world champion pool swimmer most excited.

“I didn’t knock out too many on the first round, so I wanted to try and win each round so I could pick where I went on the pontoon. I tried to go on the inside … and get out in front … I’m a pool swimmer so I kind of (wanted) a bit more clear water, that was my strategy,” Short said.

“(Dolphins Open Water head coach Fernando Possenti) was keeping me in the loop with some of the tactics some of the other guys might use. Obviously, I’ve never really done open water until now and these guys have been doing it for years.

“So (he was) just letting me know what some people could possibly do and pretty much telling me the common things like use my strength and don’t be lazy and drop my stroke rate.

“Five hundred metres seems so short compared to what I’ve done (this week) but it’s still 500m of fast racing, so I had to be pretty disciplined.

“I’ve got one more race to go tomorrow (the 5km). I love that event (3km knockout sprint), I feel like I’m really good for another 500m, so a lot more of that in the future.”

When asked if he would consider adding open water to his Dolphins program, Short said: “Ten kilometres is a long way for me, (so) that I really enjoyed actually. There’s a lot more tactics (involved) and I think it’s good for spectators as well. I’d love to do a lot more of it.”

“Also with open water you can do (it) the older you get as well … so plenty of time for open water and this (3km knockout sprint) is way less taxing than a 10km, so doing this before pool could be much more viable.”

In the knockout, swimmers all set off with a 1500m swim, after which the slowest swimmers are eliminated. Those that survive then swim a 1000m with the slowest swimmers again eliminated with the last ten remaining swimmers completing a 500m sprint for victory.

“You can’t be too tentative at the start or you’ll be eliminated and you don’t want to be too strong at the start otherwise you won’t have as much energy as someone else that was a bit more tactical towards the end,” Short said.

“It’s definitely very tactical and, I think, pretty exciting.”

Short is now set to be in the sights of open water head coach Possenti and may yet find himself following in the swim strokes of Moesha Johnson juggling both open water and pool campaigns for the Dolphins.

World champion Johnson, who won the women’s 10km race on Thursday, was never headed in the women’s 3km knockout with the 28-year-old controlling the pace from her preferred position out in front.

Johnson, whose stellar 2025 season included a winning the 10km and 5km world championship titles in Singapore, was one of the most experienced campaigners of the knockout event having won world championship bronze in a physical encounter in the waters off Sentosa Island.

Toowoomba Grammar’s Sienna Deurloo touched second after the final hot lap with promising 16-year-old Olivia Galea from Chandler third.

In the mixed 14-15 years 4x1500m relay, Mia Hoo set up her Carlile teammates (Henry McCarthy, Alexander Siau, Hannah Jamieson) with a cracking third leg to win gold with SLC Aquadot second (Jackson Swingler, Georgia Pyper, Sybella Carney, Kobi Mead) and Rocky City (Mackenzie Wyeth, Jordan Hodgetts, Isla Burridge, Jake Hodgetts) third.

Tomorrow marks the final day of racing at the Australian Open Water Championships with all age groups, including open and multi-class, contesting the course over five kilometres.

Local Lee will attempt to win his third gold medal at these nationals in the men’s open 5km after winning the open men’s 10km and the mixed 4×1.25km open relay earlier this week.

A cracking women’s open 5km field will see the likes of 10km national champion Johnson also try and win her third gold medal against Japan’s Sachika Kajimoto and Carlile’s Tayla Martin.

DAY 3 RESULTS
Mixed 14-15yrs 4×1.5km Freestyle Relay

1. Carlile (Henry McCarthy, Alexander Siau, Mia Hoo, Hannah Jamieson), 1:12:26.00;

2. SLC Aquadot (Jackson Swingler, Georgia Pyper, Sybella Carney, Kobi Mead), 1:14:22.10;

3. Rocky City, (Mackenzie Wyeth, Jordan Hodgetts, Isla Burridge, Jack Hodgetts), 1:14:37.30

Women’s 3km Knockout Sprint

1.Moesha Johnson, 6:03.20 (Miami); 2. Sienna Deurloo, 6:09.00 (Toowoomba Grammar); 3. Olivia Galea, 6:15.50 (Chandler)

Men’s 3km Knockout Sprint

1. Sam Short, 5:36.00 (Rackley); 2. Tommy Raymond, 5:37.90 (Kawana Waters); 3. Kyle Lee, 5:42.90 (North Coast)