New WR for QAS swimmer Kaylee McKeown on first night of Championships

Fresh from her string of Gold Medals in Paris, the QAS supported swimmer won the Women’s 100m Backstroke in a record-breaking 54.56 seconds, more than half a second ahead of the next competitor.

The 23-year-old said she made the last-minute decision to compete in Adelaide because she was bored, having already qualified for the World Short Course Championships in Budapest in December.

“I was going a bit stir crazy, sitting at home, so decided to jump back in two and a bit weeks ago, and just increasing the sessions. I don’t mean to toot my own horn but we’re doing some pretty incredible stuff at training,” said McKeown.

Kaylee has been training under Janelle Pallister, who is the mother of teammate Lani, while her coach Michael Bohl is on holidays.

“Janelle’s been an absolute legend. She’s taken us on board and obviously she’s been under Bohl for a few years now, so she knows what she’s doing,” said McKeown.

Fellow QAS supported swimmer, Lani Pallister, won the Women’s 200m Freestyle within the qualifying time for the World Championships, touching the wall in 1:52.73. Fellow QAS supported swimmer, Leah Neale, followed closely behind with a qualifying time of 1:53.60.

After covid forced Pallister to withdraw from her individual events in Paris, the Olympic Relay Gold Medallist said she’s looking forward to Budapest because it “is just fun”.

“I think it's going to give me an opportunity to just enjoy racing for the sake of racing without expectation. I just want to go and race, spend time with my friends, and kind of fall back in love with swimming,” said Pallister.