The opening domestic meet of the season for Australia will get underway this weekend with the Queensland State Championships held at the 1982 Commonwealth Games facility, the Chandler Aquatic Centre in Brisbane.

World champions Emily Seebohm, Cate Campbell, Bronte Campbell, Brittany Elmslie, and James Magnussen will join visiting Olympic champions Mack Horton and Kyle Chalmers, top local talent in Cameron McEvoy and Emma McKeon, youngsters Minna Atherton and Elijah Winnington, and open water champ Jordan Wilimovsky of Team USA. 

With Australia holding an “early” National Trials, which start on Feb. 28, 2018, we expect to see some fast swimming starting... now.

Here are our top five matchups of the weekend: 

Men’s 200m Freestyle

Cam McEvoy is top seed with a 1:45.6, but the depth in this event is crazy with 12 guys seeded at 1:47.7 or better. Mack Horton has traveled north for the meet. He is reigning national champ with a mediocre 1:46.8 from April, so this event is wide open for 2018. World junior star Elijah Winnington, McEvoy’s training partner, will also be in the mix, with 100m specialists Kyle Chalmers, Jack Cartwright, and France’s Clement Mignon, too. National teamers Daniel Smith, David McKeon, Clyde Lewis, and Alex Graham will all add depth to this event. It won’t be easy to make the final. 

Women’s 100m Backstroke

Emily Seebohm has had a strangle hold on this event in Australia since 2007 and still seems to be getting better and better each year. After a successful World Cup tour and a gold medal from Budapest sitting at home, Seebohm is in line for a huge Commonwealth Games in her home state in 2018. Here, Seebohm’s challenges come from training partner and 17-year-old world junior record holder Minna Atherton, Kazan silver medalist Madison Wilson, and 2:07 200m girl Sian Whittaker. These four will also go at it over the 200m distance as well, with Seebohm also taking on the 100m free, and both IM events in QLD.

Men’s 100m Freestyle

Always one of the most highly anticipated events, Australia has five guys — yes, FIVE — with personal-best times in the 47-second range. If they can all fire at the same time, their relay team will be unreal.

• McEvoy — 47.04 (2016), 2014 Pan Pac Champion
• Magnussen — 47.10 (2012), 2011 & 2013 World Champion
• Chalmers — 47.58 (2016), 2016 Olympic Champion
• Roberts — 47.63 (2012), 2016 Olympic Bronze (4x100m free relay)
• Cartwright — 47.97 (2017), 7th 2017 World Champs

Take your pick.                        

Women’s 100m Freestyle

As current world-record holders and Olympic champions, the Aussie women are always going to produce a stacked domestic field in the 100m freestyle.

The Campbell sisters, Cate and Bronte, are respective world champions in this event from 2013 and 2015, with Cate also recently breaking the short course world record in this event, just two months ago. Bronte is battling shoulder and hip injuries and will do her best top hold off 200m Olympic bronze medalist Emma McKeon, who has been the only one to push the sisters in domestic waters in recent years. Short course world champ Brittany Elmslie is also in the lineup, with Shayna Jack, Madison Wilson, Koti Ngawati, and Seebohm adding more depth to the event. Don’t sleep on Cate throwing down a blistering time in-season. 

Men’s 1500m Freestyle

The Australians really loves their freestylers — and they have their work cut out for them to hold off the international visitors in the main distance event of the meet. Horton comes in as top seed with a 14:39 best time in the 1500, but he is not known for his in-season swimming ability. He will certainly be pushed by the USA’s Wilimovsky, who has been training in QLD for a few months now. Jack McLoughlin seeds at a 14:48, and another visitor, New Zealand’s Michael Mincham, sits fourth with a respectable 15:05. Short course national champ Joshua Parrish is fifth but due for a big time drop this season.