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)
More to come…..
