Australian swimming championships: Mack Horton wins freestyle treble

Mack Horton’s bid to reclaim the 1500m world title for Australia is a step closer after a stunning national titles performance.

Mack Horton after winning the 1500m freestyle final at the Australian Swimming Championships. Picture: AAP

Olympic gold medallist Mack Horton became the first Australian man in nine years to claim the 200m/400m/1500m freestyle treble at the national titles in Brisbane tonight.

Horton, 22, wrapped up his week with a strong performance in the 1500m clocking the third fastest time in the world this year, 14:51.21.

Horton’s ultimate ambition is to bring the world 1500m title back to Australia for the first time in 12 years.

Grant Hackett won his fourth and last world title in 2005, the year he also won the 200m/400m/1500m treble at the national titles, which could be an omen for Horton.

He tried out a new 1500m strategy last night, holding a more even pace throughout the race and making sure he finished strongly.

“That hurt a bit,’’ he said. “There’s no easy 1500s though. I would have liked to go a little bit faster but this was all about trying to push thatlst 500m and seeing how that is (at this stage of his training).’’

Fellow Rio Olympian Jack McLoughlin also clinched his place in the Australian team for the world titles, finishing second in 14:54.95.

Australia’s next distance star has also announced herself this week.

Ariarne Titmus, a 16-year-old Brisbane schoolgirl, completed the 400m-800m freestyle double last night, with a dominant performance in the shorter distance.

She stopped the clock in 4min4.82sec, a national 16 years record and the second fastest time in the world so far this year.

A fearless racer, she slashed five seconds from her previous best time in the event, to go with the 14-second improvement she made to win the 800m.

She also finished second in the 200m freestyle so she could swim up to four events at her first world titles, with the 4 x 200m freestyle relay.

Mack Horton during the 1500m final.

“I know I have trained well and if I put my race together well I would do well,’’ she said.

“I’m really really happy with how I raced. A lot of hard training and my coach (Dean Boxall at St Peters) being on my back all the time has gone into this.

“I’m a bit shocked with how I went but it’s not totally unexpected considering the training I’ve been doing.’’

Jessica Ashwood, a world championships medallist in this event in Kazan two years ago, did not race yesterday and it was later revealed that she had decided not to contest this year’s world titles.

Ashwood had already qualified for the team, finishing second in the 800m freestyle, but national head coach Jacco Verhaeren said

“She was always playing with the thought but didn’t want to distract herself or anyone else while she was racing.

“She made the qualifying time (in the 800m) but has decided she will still race overseas but she has some uni commitments this year that she wants to fulfil and she wants to be ready for the Commonwealth Games.’’

At the other end of the distance spectrum, reigning world champion Bronte Campbell touched out her sister Cate to complete the sprint double in the 50m freestyle (24.56sec).

Cate, who will skip the world titles this year, finished second in 24.56sec, with their younger training partner Shayna Jack (24.66sec) completing the podium. Jack is likely to step up into Cate’s place in this event at the world titles.

Bronte admitted it would have irked her if Cate had beaten her tonight, given that her older sister is only training part-time at the moment.

“Cate is putting in about half the effort I am so it would have been annoying if she had beaten me,’’ she said.

“It’s not a very quick time but it’s pretty much where I’m at (after a shoulder injury). We have been trying to get the 100 working so we haven’t trained much speed this prep, but we’ve got the 100 going well and anything on top of that is a bit of a bonus. “Tonight wasn’t that quick but the shoulder has held up really well and that was kind of my entire goal this year. I just wanted to make the team. In about January I was really stressed that that might not even happen. But now I think I’ll be in the mix (in Budapest).

Emma McKeon claimed her third national title of the week in what she regards as her “fun’’ event, the 200m butterfly.

The multi-talented McKeon set a personal best time of 2:07.37 and has now qualified to swim the event at the world titles, but with six events already on her plate she is unlikely to take up the opportunity.

“I often have thoughts that I could do the 200m butterfly in future as an event but for now it clashes with some of my main events,’’ she said.

“It’s more a fun event, if you can call it that.’’