Ed Sommerville Sizzles In Sydney, Setting A New Australian 200m Freestyle Short Course Record of 1:40.16
Brisbane Grammar’s Ed Sommerville has swum his way to 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 tonight – setting himself up for a podium challenge at the World Short Course Championships in Beijing in December.
The 21-year-old clocking 1:40.16 – to cut 0.20 off Paris Olympian Max Giuliani’s 2024 Australian record of 1:40.36 – swimming well under the Swimming Australia qualifying time for a World’s berth.
The member of the Australian gold medal-winning 4x200m freestyle at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games trailed Giuliani (Miami, QLD) through the first 25m before taking controlto 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 moving him from 10th to seventh all time – just 0.33 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 0.01 off Joshua Yong’s 2024 National mark.
Yong (Highlanders, WA) finishing second in 56.72, with Collett’s Bind teammate Gideon Burnes (who set an Australian All-Comers mark of 56.94 in the heats) third home in 56.94.
While teammate Armbruster joined the exclusive “21 Club”– winning the 50m butterfly in 21.90 – breaking his own National mark of 22.00 seconds, set in the morning heats – jumping into the World’s All-Time Top Ten.
And in a remarkable story of perseverance and longevity in the sport, 29-year-old Russian-born backstroker Mark Nikolaev has won the 100m backstroke in 49.79 and under the qualifying time for the Australian team for Beijing – beating home 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 – and after four years 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.