Teenager Kaylee McKeown smashed the ladies’s 100m backstroke world document Sunday, touching in 57.45sec on the Australian Olympic trials in Adelaide, dedicating it to her father who died final yr.
The 19-year-old, who has been in blistering kind this yr, swam a sensational race to brush previous American rival Regan Smith’s all-time mark of 57.57, set on the 2019 world championships.
McKeown turned in 28.10 and was by no means beneath menace as she powered to the end.
Veteran Emily Seebohm hit the wall second in 58.59 to additionally e book her place in Tokyo in what will likely be her fourth Olympics.
“I simply can’t imagine it. I simply needed to return in tonight and blow out the cobwebs,” McKeown said poolside in Adelaide with tears in her eyes.
“It’s been a huge year for me and my family. It’s been 10 months since my dad passed today. So with that behind me and doing that I think he would be very proud.”
McKeown, whose father died final yr from mind most cancers, is shaping as much as be a severe a number of gold medal contender in Japan.
She can also be anticipated to qualify within the 200m backstroke, having not too long ago set the fourth quickest time in historical past, and the 200m particular person medley, the place she owns the world’s finest time this season.
Australia gained ten medals within the pool on the 2016 Games in Rio, matching their feat from London 4 years earlier, however effectively down on the 20 they clinched in Beijing in 2008.
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