Queensland teen Jack Cartwright fails to progress at Commonwealth Games trials

One of the brightest prospects in Australian swimming has failed to qualify for the final of his pet event at the Commonwealth Games trials.

Jack Cartwright failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 200m freestyle final at the Australian Commonwealth Games trials, despite swimming at last year’s world championships. Picture: AAP.

The swimming fraternity was left shocked by the end of the first session of the Commonwealth Games trials today as the cutthroat 200m freestyle heats took their first significant casualty.

In an event of unprecedented depth at national level, Queensland teenager Jack Cartwright, who swam the 200m freestyle at last year’s world championships, was shut-out of tonight’s final after setting the ninth fastest qualifying time (1min48.36sec).

Only the top eight progressed to the final, led by Australian representative Alex Graham (personal best of 1:46.72), current national champion Mack Horton (1:47.06) and former champion Cameron McEvoy (1:47.48), who all swam in the first seeded heat.

Olympic 100m freestyle champion Kyle Chalmers (1:47.71) also qualified alongside top seed Clyde Lewis (1:47.76), David McKeon (1:47.83), 17-year-old Elijah Winnington (1:48.26) and Daniel Smith (1:48.29).

Graham, McEvoy and Winnington all train together under coach Richard Scarce at Bond University.

“It was a great PB for Alex, his first time under 1:47 for him and to do that in a heat is really good — no doubt he will go faster tonight,’’ McEvoy said.

Graham’s heat time was faster than Horton’s title-winning time last year (a personal best of 1:46.83), which demonstrates the sharp increase in depth with a home Games in the offing.

Horton is lurking dangerously after swimming close to his personal best and will be a factor tonight in an event which he does not regard as one of his key targets.

“I got what I needed out of it,’’ he said.

“I don’t have the speed at the start that the other guys have so I just had a nice little ride on Cam and Alex and swum home at the end.’’

He said qualifying for the 4 X 200m freestyle relay was his main aim tonight.

“I love that relay, it’s good fun, one of my highlights from Rio was the relay, it is probably as good as the gold medal, it is a fun event to be a part of and I want to do that”

Cartwright, 19, will now have to put this setback behind him and qualify for the Games in tomorrow’s 100m freestyle, which is similarly fraught, as it features Chalmers, McEvoy and dual world champion James Magnussen. But Cartwright reached the world championships final in the 100m last year and will be in the mix if he can swim at his best.

Queensland teenager Ariarne Titmus also began the trials with a bang, clocking the fastest 200m freestyle in the world so far this year to qualify fastest for tonight’s finals.

Titmus, 17, stalked former world 100m freestyle record-holder Cate Campbell, who was using the race as a warm-up for tomorrow’s 100m, through the first 100m and then put down the hammer to finish in a near personal best of 1min56.58sec.

She was the fastest of the heats by more than a second from reigning Commonwealth champion Emma McKeon (1:57.90), setting up an intriguing duel for the title tonight.

“I just wanted to blow the cobwebs out a bit,’’ national 400m freestyle champion Titmus said.

“I knew Cate would go out hard because she has a lot more speed than me so it was good to be next to her and then try to put the pedal down in the third 50.

“Emma will go out hard as well so I’ll have to stick with her as much as I can without that dictating what I do and then try and come home faster.’’

Titmus said she liked the new format of the trials this year, which excludes semi-finals to put pressure on the swimmers to qualify from heats directly to finals.

“Overseas we can’t rest in the heats if we want to make the finals or semi-finals and it’s good to practice that,’’ she said.

Former junior star Mikkayla Sheridan (1:58.08) was the other seeded heat winner and will strive for a top three finish tonight to earn her place on the Games team.

McKeon returned to qualify fastest for the 200m butterfly in 2:08.50, two seconds faster than rising 18-year-old Laura Taylor (2:09.51).

Olympic silver medallist Madeline Groves returned to racing after surgery late last year for endometriosis, and progressed to the final (2:11.09) despite a limited preparation.

Commonwealth 200m breaststroke champion Taylor McKeown sent a signal that she is intent on retaining her title with an impressively controlled heat swim of 2:25.80 and will be the outright favourite to win tonight’s final.

“I always try to do my heat swims at about 70 or 80 per cent,’’ McKeown said.

“All the good racers that I’ve watched internationally are all out fairly easy and can usually even split the 200m breaststroke and in the last six months I’ve trained that way and raced that way and hopefully tonight it can get me under that A qualifying (standard, 2:23.81) and on the team.’’

“Given that I have such a big lead on the Commonwealth doesn’t change anything I’m still going to go out there and smash it.”

Rio Olympian Georgia Bohl was second fastest this morning in 2:27.17 and is well-positioned to win a place on her first Commonwealth Games team, while fellow Olympian Tessa Wallace was the third swimmer under 2min30sec (2:29.30).

In the men’s 200m breaststroke heats, world championships finalist Matt Wilson was similarly dominant, setting the pace in 2:10.57 and said he hoped to press into the 2:07 range in tonight’s final.

Wilson, who has a personal best of 2:08.64, said he felt ready to swim faster after a strong preparation.

“I just have to stay relaxed really, not get too worked up, not rate too high in that first 100.

“If I can nail that hopefully I can go a PB and maybe go under 2:07, that would be good.’’

The Commonwealth record is 2:07.30 and Christian Sprenger has the Australian record at 2:07.31.

“It’s about conserving in the first 100 and putting the foot down in the second 100,’’ he said.

World 200m backstroke champion Emily Seebohm also started off her campaign with a statement of intent, dominating the 100m backstroke heats in 58.90 sec.

She was the only swimmer to break the minute this morning, with Australian teammates Hayley Baker (1:00.26) and Kaylee McKeown next fastest (1:00.70).

Racing outdoors presents particularly challenges for backstrokers because it’s more difficult for them to use visual cues to swim straight, and Seebohm said she hit the lane rope today.

Her partner Olympic silver medallist Mitch Larkin was similarly dominant in the men’s 100m backstroke heats, clocking 53.90 sec.