Aussie Selection Trials, Day 2, Finals: Teenage Stars Sienna Toohey and Henry Allan Emerge As The New Faces Of Australian Swimming
Two teenage stars came of age on night two of the Australian Trials and Australian Championships Meet in Sydney – with 17-year-old regional champions Sienna Toohey and Henry Allan delivering eye-catching performances.
In two feel good stories of the meet the two teens, Toohey from Albury in NSW and Allan from Bendigo East in Victoria, showed why the future looks bright for the Australia’s Dolphins on the road to LA28.
The first shining light came in the very first final, with Toohey graduating from National Age Group champion and a debutant at last year’s World Championships in Singapore to one of the fastest swimmers in the world for the first six months of the year.
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REMEMBER THIS FACE: Sienna Toohey who will race at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia)
oohey becoming only the third Australian behind four-time Olympian Leisel Joines and Sarah Katsoulis to break 1:06.00 in the 100m breaststroke final.
Touted for the last two years as a teen most likely as she broke Age records set by Jones, the girl from Albury and now training in Canberra, clocked a sizzling 1:05.97.
The fifth fastest time in the world for 2026 and a time that would have seen her finish fifth in last year’s World Championship final in Singapore.
Before the race her coach at the The NSW Swimming Hub in Canberra, world renown Olympic coach Shannon Rollason – the man who guided Jodie Henry to triple Olympic gold in Athens in 2004 – was convinced she could break 1:06.00.
Aghast at the thought, she wasn’t going to die wondering, turning in 30.58, a near pb for 50m, and finding something she had never found before in the closing stages to rocket up the rankings as she prepares to make her Games debut in Glasgow – a major stepping stone towards LA28.
And towards the end of the night it was another regional kid, towering a 17-year-old in Henry Allan, who stands at 202cm (6ft 6ins) and who won his first Australian Open title in the men’s 100m backstroke in 53.52.
TALL ORDER: Henry Allan the new tall order of Australian Swimming. Photo Courtesy Delly Carr (Swimming Australia).
It was outside a tough automatic qualifying standard of 52.57 – but a place on the men’s medley relay team awaits and he also has the 200m backstroke to come for an exciting youngster with the world at his feet.
Allan had been touched out by former world champion Isaac Cooper in the 50m final on night one, with Cooper clocking the fastest time in the heats of the 100m clocking 54.37, before withdrawing from the final.
The Victorian schoolboy, coached in Bendigo by John Jordan, launching himself off the blocks in the final chasing his Glasgow dream, winning his first National Open title with NSW pair Stuart Swinburn (City of Sydney) and Adam Graham (Manly), second and third respectively in 54.62 and 54.64.