Kaylee McKeown has smashed the 200m backstroke world record on the opening night of finals at the 2023 New South Wales (NSW) State Open Championships. The 21-year-old from Griffith University in Queensland clocked a time of two minutes 03.14 seconds to clip 0.21 seconds off American Regan Smith’s time set at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. McKeown was in the zone when she walked onto the pool deck at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre on Friday and wasted no time setting the pace with a 29.34 for her first 50m. The Olympic, World and Commonwealth Games champion then split 1:00.73 at the 100m and 1:31.84 at the 150m mark.
McKeown claimed the 100m and 200m backstroke golds at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but knows defending her titles in Paris won’t be easy.
