Ed Sommerville Holds Off Duncan Scott To Complete A 200m Freestyle Double At Queensland Championships
The boy from Brisbane Grammar Ed Sommerville has put the finishing touches to a well hatched plan completing the Queensland Championship-Japan Open 200m freestyle double at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre tonight.
A plan he hopes will help him produce the perfect turn around as he sets his sights on the 2026 Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs – only two weeks apart.
The 20-year-old World Championship debutant revealed his plan to replicate the turnaround required from Glasgow to the Pan Pacs in Irvine, California.
Sommerville won the Japan Open last month in Tokyo in a time of 1:45.34 and backed up to win tonight’s Hancock Prospecting Queensland title in 1:45.38 (24.18; 50.27; 1:17.50) – beating Tokyo Olympic silver medalliust and last week’s 2026 European Short Course Champion, Great Britain’s Duncan Scott (1.46.26).
STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT: GBR’s Duncan Scott at full stretch at the Hancock Prospecting Queensland Championships.Photo Courtesy Wade Brennan (Swimming Queensland).
Rackley’s Paris Olympian and 2023 world champion over 400m, Sam Short was a fast finishing third in 1:46.46.
Sommerville’s plan with coach Bobby Jovanovich in his corner is to continue get out after his races – “to have a crack” and that’s just what he did tonight and as hard as he tried Scott could not reel Sommerville in.
“We wanted to use the Japan Open Meet and the Queensland Championships as practice to prepare for the turn around between the Commonwealth Games and the Pan Pacs next year,” said Sommerville
“The time zone difference between Glasgow and LA will be a lot more challenging with the recovery.
“And for these Queensland championships I’m not fully tapered –so it’s a bit harder to backup here.
“The full taper and some good sleep next year and I’m sure Pan Pacs will be manageable….It’s good to know what we working towards.
“It was a world class field here and I’ll be racing Duncan (Scott) at Com Games so it’s good to have him here.
“Duncan swims a different race to me so I can’t get caught up with how he swims the race. I just have to stick to my race plan.
“Singapore wasn’t the best time wise but there was definitely some indications that there is a good 200m on the horizon…definitely some lessons learnt. So looking towards 2026 where I’ll be out to put it together ..that’s the plan.”
While in the women’s 200m freestyle final it was World Champion 50m freestyler Meg Harris (Rackley) who stole the march on the field, with an upset win over Lani Pallister (St Peters Western) and her Rackley teammate Hannah Allen.
Noted sprinter Harris, the two-time Olympic 4x100m freestyler gold medallist, who won 50m silver in Paris, led from start to finish to touch in a personal best time of 1:55.97 (26.45, 55.68; 1:25.58), Pallister second in 1:56.87 with Allen third in 1:57.99.
ABREAST OF THE TIMES: Zac Stubblety-Cook wins another Queensland title in Brisbane tonight.Photo Courtesy Wade Brennan (Swimming Queensland).
The 200m breaststroke saw Griffith University training partners, Paris Olympians Zac Stubblety-Cook and Ella Ramsay snatch a winning double for coach Mel Marshall.
Olympic champion in 2024 and silver medallist from Paris, former world record holder, Stubblety-Cook unleashing his trade-mark power-packed final 75 metres to touch in 2:09.37 (29.66; 1:02.39; 1:36.02) shred iff Bailey Lello (St Peters Western) 2:12.32 and Finlay Schuster (Nudgee College Swimming) 2:12.41.
Ramsay winning the women’s 200m breaststroke 2:24.63, from Matilda Smith (Miami) and British visitor Angharad Evans (2:26.19).
While the women’s 100m backstroke, with the queen Kaylee McKeown sitting this one out, saw visiting Brit Lauren Cox (1:0025) snatch a thrilling victory over Australian Paris team mates Iona Anderson (Highlanders, WA) finished second in 1:00.50 and Jaclyn Barclay (St Peters Western, QLD) third in 1:00.72.
And the mens’s going to Japan’s Juho Lee by the narrowest of margins 0.01 ahead of 17-year-old Victorian rising star Henry Allan, 53.71 to 53.72 with Enoch Robb (Griffith University) third in 55.07.
In an eventful start to the day, Olympic champion Mollie O’Callaghan withdrew from the meet with a shoulder injury and Korean world champion Woomin Kim was disqualified from the men’s 200m freestyle final.
O’Callaghan, who has been battling her shoulder problems in the back end of 2025, revealed yesterday that she would not be taking her place in her home-town State Championships.
But the 21-year-old arrived at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre this morning and lined up in the heats of the women’s 200m freestyle, clocking the fastest qualifying time of the day, 1:57.77, before withdrawing from the final and informing meet officials she was also withdrawing from the rest of the meet.
Her St Peters Western Olympic teammate and fellow 4x200m freestyle world champion, Jamie Perkins also withdrew from the 200m freestyle, she too sighting shoulder soreness which could well rule her out for the rest of the week also.
O’Callaghan, who along with Perkins, swam in the victorious Australian team in Friday night’s Duel Meet against a visiting World Team, where she won the 50m Freestyle Skins, said yesterday it was time to give her ailing shoulder some time off.
“My shoulder is inflamed…and it’s having a bit of a tough time so it’s time to rest and recover before getting back on track,” said O’Callaghan, who noted her issue would not require surgery.
O’Callaghan confirming, she was setting her sights on next year’s Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships and the World Short Course Championships in China.
