Splashdown In Adelaide As Harrison Turner Unearthed As Australia’s Fastest 200m Butterflyer in 16 Years
Australia has unearthed its fastest 200m butterflyer in 16 years after 21-year-old Queenslander Harrison Turner’s 1:54.90 in Adelaide tonight – one of the most impressive swims in what has already been an encouraging week so far at the Australian Trials.
And if you are going to announce yourself to the world then why not make a splash on prime-time television – and that’s just what Harry did.
Not since Nick Darcy set the Australian record at 1:54.46 in Sydney in 2009 has an Australian broken 1:55.00 for the event that has seen both the late Kevin Berry (Rome, 1960) and Jon Sieben (Los Angeles, 1984) win Olympic gold.
Since the first World Swimming Championships in Belgrade in 1973, Australia has never won a medal in the event .
But the boy known as Harry from a swimming heartland at Nudgee College on the northern outskirts of Brisbane has delivered all the promise he has shown after finishing second in last year’s Olympic Trials.
Winning this year’s Australian Open Championships in Brisbane signaled that there’s maybe something wild about Harry.
Australia did not send a swimmer in the event in Paris last year after Trials winner Bowen Gough and Turner failed to reach the Olympic qualifying standard.
But Harry Turner has now officially arrived and he has lived up to all expectations, especially after the Nudgee College Instagram account posted last year that: “Harrison Turner has just finished second at the 2024 Australian Olympic Trials in one of the toughest events on the program, the 200m butterfly. He is an up and comer, having swum personal bests in all his swims at Trials….Harry is on track to become the top 200m butterflier in Australia.”
The youngster who is coached by the wily master Shaun Crow was called in to the Australian Short Course World Championships Team last year when Kaylee McKeown withdrew. He finished 17th in his pet event in Budapest.
Now he has gatecrashed his way to a massive long course personal best – having come into the meet on a 1:57.07 – knowing he had to drop to 1:56.03 to make his first Long Course team for the 2025 World Championships and not in his wildest dreams did he expect a 1:54.
And Harry certainly wasn’t going to die wondering – splitting 53.83 (25.20;28.63) at the 100m turn and coming home in 1:01.07 (29.89; 31.18) – chasing the QT line on the television screens – and buoyed by the screams.
“I can’t believe it; I wasn’t expecting a time like that. I just put myself out there and it just happened,” said Turner.
“I thought I’d be lucky to go under 1.56, it’s a hard race and I just wasn’t expecting this one, I’m super stoked.”