Source : ABC NEWS
Sienna Toohey has qualified for the Commonwealth Games, making her difficult journey across the country worth it.
The 17-year-old backed up her win at April’s Australian Open by beating Ella Ramsay to the wall in the 100m breaststroke on the second night of the Australian Swimming Trials in Sydney.
Toohey won in 1:05.97, the third fastest time ever recorded by an Australian woman, with fastest qualifier Ramsay second in 1:06.70, which is outside the automatic qualifying time.
Ramsay, an Olympic and world championships silver medallist in the 4x100m medley relay, already qualified for next month’s Games in Glasgow in the 200m individual medley and is likely to be part of the 100m breaststroke in Scotland.
But she was pipped by rising star Toohey, who has now beaten Ramsay at a third straight major national meet, adding her 2026 wins to victory at last year’s world championship trials.
Sienna Toohey was elated to break the 1:06 barrier for the first time. (Getty Images: Matt King)
Hailing from Albury in Western Australia, the teenager has moved across the country to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.
“My older brother has come up for uni in Canberra,” she told Channel Nine.
“It’s hard not seeing my friends for quite some time. I don’t have a lot of friends in Canberra, but that just made it all worth it.”
Toohey said she had spoken to coach Shannon Rollason before the race about hitting 1:06 for the first time, with Rollason backing her to become the fourth Australian woman (after Leisel Jones, Sarah Katsoulis and Chelsea Hodges) to go under that barrier.
When Toohey saw her time, the look on her face — mouth agape and eyes wide — suggested it still came as a bit of a shock.
McKeown still on top despite ‘a bit of a touch-up’
Meanwhile, an unwell Kaylee McKeown maintained her standing as Australia’s backstroke queen despite receiving “a bit of a touch-up” from Iona Anderson.
They both qualified for the 100m for the Commonwealth Games, kicking off next month in Glasgow.
Kaylee McKeown won the 50m and 100m backstroke, with the 200m still to come. (Getty Images: Matt King)
The only Australian with four individual Olympic gold medals, McKeown will be looking to complete another “double-double” by backing up her 100m and 200m backstroke Commonwealth golds from Birmingham 2022.
She showed some signs of human vulnerability as Anderson pipped her for the fastest qualifying time into the 100m final, and 20-year-old Anderson was leading after 50 metres on Tuesday night.
But McKeown backed her motor to come home strong and, after an expert turn, passed Anderson and held onto the lead to win in 57.77 seconds ahead of Anderson’s 58.60.
After winning the race, McKeown, who edged Anderson and Mollie O’Callaghan in the 50m on Monday night and still has the 200m to come on Thursday, said her body was just about holding together.
“I feel like I’m 86 years old,” she told Channel Nine.
Her mum, Sharon, said it was good to see “Iona gave her a bit of a touch-up” to keep her daughter honest after so long on top of the game.
But she did reveal the 24-year-old had been struggling with illness in the lead-up to the trials.
“She’s been trying to keep it under the radar that she’s not feeling well,” Sharon said, adding McKeown was never going to use it as any sort of excuse.
