Ed Sommerville Sizzles in Sydney; Sets Australian 200 Freestyle Short Course Record of 1:40.16
Brisbane Grammar’s Ed Sommerville has swum his way to the seventh-fastest time in history with his national record breaking time of 1:40.16 in the men’s 200m freestyle on the opening night’s finals at the Australian Short Course Championships in Sydney. The effort sets him up for a podium challenge at the World Short Course Championships in Beijing in December.
The 21-year-old clocked 1:40.16 to cut .20 off Paris Olympian Max Giuliani’s 2024 Australian record of 1:40.36, and swimming well under the Swimming Australia qualifying time for a Worlds berth. A member of the Australian gold medal-winning 4x200m freestyle at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Sommerville trailed Giuliani (Miami, QLD) through the first 25m before taking control to punish the field with a world class performance.
Sommerville, coached by Bobby Jovanovich in the Brisbane ‘32 Olympic city, took control to hit the front at the 50m mark, splitting 23.20, touching in a slick 48.13 at the 100m and 1:13.87 at 150m. His 1:40.16 moves him from 10th to seventh all time – just .33 outside Brit Duncan Scott’s Commonwealth record of 1:39.83 and 1.55 seconds away from American Luke Hobson’s world record of 1:38.61.
ALL-TIME TOP TEN 200m FREESTYLE SHORT COURSE TIMES
1:38.61 Luke Hobson (USA)
1:39.37 Paul Biedermann (GER)
1:39.70 Yannick Angel (FRA)
1:39.72 Sunwoo Hwang (KOR)
1:39.83 Duncan Scott (GBR)
1:40.08 Danila Izotov (RUS)
1:40.16 Ed Sommerville (AUS)
1:40.19 Chris Guiliano (USA)
1:40.36 Max Giuliani (AUS)
1:40.49 Townley Haas (USA)
In other events:
Gold Coast duo Joshua Collett and Ben Armbruster continued Bond’s record breaking day, Collett setting a new Australian mark in the men’s 100m breaststroke, stopping the clock at 56.61 – taking the barest margin of .01 off Joshua Yong’s 2024 National mark. Yong (Highlanders, WA) finished second in 56.72, with Collett’s Bond teammate Gideon Burnes (who set an Australian All-Comers mark of 56.94 in the heats) third home in 56.94.
Armbruster joined the exclusive “21 Club”, winning the 50m butterfly in 21.90 to break his own national mark of 22.00, set in the morning heats. He jumped into the Worlds All-Time Top Ten, beating home another Bond boy in Jesse Coleman (22.22) and James Ward (Caulfield, VIC) 23.21.
The two stars of this year’s Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs, Lani Pallister and Sam Short served up three outstanding performances, Short delivering a power-packed 800m freestyle in 7:25.55 – the third fastest time in history behind Irish world record holder Daniel Wiffen (7:20.46) and fellow Australian Grant Hackett (7:23.42).
While a nonstop Pallister delivered what Lani does, winning the 200m freestyle in her second fastest time ever of 1:51.99 before returning to the pool deck at the end of the night to take the 1500m in 15:18.68. That time was not far away from her own Australian record of 15:13.83 in another solo swim over the 64-lap journey.
And in a remarkable story of perseverance and longevity in the sport, 29-year-old Russian-born backstroker Mark Nikolaev won the 100m backstroke in 49.79 and under the qualifying time for the Australian team for Beijing – beating home a Gold Coast pair, two-time Olympian Isaac Cooper (50.25) and Enoch Robb (51.09).
After representing Russia at the 2019 World University Games, following a celebrated five-year US college career at the Grand Canyon University, Nikolaev migrated to Australia in 2022, swimming st Bond University and now at Somerset on the Gold Coast under Head Coach Ashley Callus. Regularly swimming at the Australian Open Meets, he is now eligible to represent Australia.
Australia will send its fastest 24 swimmers to Beijing and winning the individual 100m backstroke should put Nikolaev in a prime position to make the cut and make his Dolphins debut.
And it could well be alongside fellow backstroker and Paris Olympian Iona Anderson (Highlanders, WA), who stepped up to the plate in the absence of Kaylee McKeown to clock a personal best of 55.57 to win the women’s 100m backstroke in the fourth fastest time by an Australian – only bettered by McKeown, Emily Seebohm and Minna Atherton.
In a major highlight, Paralympic gold medallist Rowan Crothers set a new world record in the Multi-Class non Paralympic S10 200m freestyle with a time of 1:49.93, with fellow Paralympian Maddie McTernan (2:07.68) claiming the S14 women’s 200m freestyle national record.