Trials Night 1: Short flirts with WR, Williamson books ticket to Glasgow

NOTHING short of epic.

Sam Short (pictured) opened the first night of finals at the 2026 Australian Swimming Trials by putting the crowd at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on world record watch.

Though he missed the 400m free world record, he gave it a damn good scare with his 3:40.67 just outside world’s best of 3:39.96 – his opening 200m indicating his desire to crack the men’s 4x200m free relay team.

Post race, it was only fitting for Glasgow-bound Short, having had melanomas removed in 2022, paid tribute to former Australian of the Year Richard Scolyer, the renowned pathologist and melanoma researcher, who passed away on Sunday.

“He was a tremendous guy, and I’d done a lot of work with him at the Melanoma Institute. He’s obviously way smarter than I ever will be, but … I woke up and saw that he had passed away,” Short said.

“(He fought so hard) … and should have passed away a couple years ago but his work pushed his life out that much further. A 3.40min swim is a walk in the park compared to what he’s (went) through.

“He’s been amazing for the Melanoma Institute and that’s what I’m involved in.”

Fellow Dolphin Elijah Winnington (3:44.17) qualified for his third straight Commonwealth Games and his St Peters teammate Ben Goedemans (3:45.85) also posted a qualifying time in the 400m free.

Other standout performances from Night 1 included:

• Jenna Forrester claiming the 200IM (2:09.07) and then backing up “for fun” to finish second (4:04.30) but also qualify for the 400m free behind a dominate Lani Pallister who touched in 3:59.72, her fourth sub 4min swim of her career.
• An unwell Kaylee McKeown and her great mate Mollie O’Callaghan locking horns in the 50m backstroke.  Despite admitting to never training for the event and that she likes “just ripping one out”, O’Callaghan (27.19) pushed McKeown (27.13) to the wall.
• In one of the tightest finishes of the night and a race that had the crowd up on their feet, including Paralympic Head Coach Mel Tantrum, Darren Sisman (1:57.17) made his first Australian Dolphins senior team in his home pool in the men’s 200m freestyle multiclass.

Sisman went stroke for stroke with Paris Paralympic bronze medallist Jack Ireland (1:56.47) and 2025 world championship Dolphin Declan Budd (1:56.37) and the S14 trio all went under the Para Pan Pacific Championships qualifying time.

In the women’s 200m free MC, Ruby Storm added her name to the Para Pan Pacific Championships team alongside fellow Paris Paralympian Maddie McTernan who stamped her ticket in this morning’s heat. Tonight, Storm clocked 2:12.82 behind McTernan’s 2:10.87 to qualify.

“Gosh it feels good to be back.”

Sam Williamson is back in the green and gold.

Williamson watched last year’s Australian Swimming Trials from the couch after he completely ruptured his patella tendon doing a box jump during training. At that moment, the former 50m breaststroke world champion was unsure if he could ever walk again let alone represent Australia in the pool.

So, when the speciallist breaststroker stopped the clock under the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships qualifying time in the 100m breaststroke, all the pain and hard work he had endured for the past 13-months had paid off.

Williamson clocked a cracking 59.11 in the heats and then went slightly quicker in the final (59.07) – a back-to-back feat made even more impressive by the fact that he hadn’t swum under the minute in two years.

“It’s a dream come true, and it just makes all those mornings where I wanted to throw in the towel worth it,” Williamson said.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve done that (back to back 59s) … the goal was to come out and do two 59s. I probably went a little bit too crash hot this morning, so (I was) certainly feeling it on that last 15m.”

St Peters’ Bailey Lello (1:00.33) and Brisbane Grammar’s Josh Anderson (1:00.42) placed second and third respectively, followed by Zac Stubblety-Cook in fourth (1:00.43).

Lello and Anderson have two more shots this week to earn their Dolphins pin. Watch them chase Williamson in the men’s 50m breaststroke on Wednesday and see if they can break through dual Olympian Stubblety-Cook in the 200m breaststroke on Friday.