McKeon en route to Barcelona

The 2013 Australian Swimming Championships began late last week, with David McKeon becoming the first NSWIS athlete to secure passage to the 2013 world championships.

McKeon secured world championship selection in the men’s 400m freestyle, defending his title from last year and setting a new personal best time of 3:43.71. McKeon’s then backed up his gold with a bronze in the men’s 200m freestyle, clocking another personal best of 1:46.96.

Fellow NSWIS athletes Mitchell Patterson and Daniel Arnamnart were also in the medals during the opening days of the competition; Patterson taking silver in the men’s 50m butterfly and Arnamnart taking bronze in the men’s 100m backstroke.

Paralympians Taylor Corry and Maddison Elliott boosted their chances of competing at the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships with several medal winning performances.

Corry won gold in the women’s multi-class 100m backstroke and 50m butterfly before adding silver in the women’s multi-class 50m freestyle, the event in which Elliott won gold in a new S8 world record time of 30.28. Elliott also won bronze in the women’s multi-class 100m backstroke.

Mitchell Kilduff won two medals over the course of the weekend, winning gold in the men’s multi-class 50m butterfly and silver in the men’s multi-class 50m freestyle.