Kaylee reached out to touch the wall first in 27.33 at the South Australia Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Adelaide on Monday, just ahead of good mate and part-time but world-class backstroker Mollie O’Callaghan (27.39), who was also under qualifying time for World Championships.

Kaylee said: “It's not the first time I've been DQ’d, so it’s not something that you really want to practice but it's good to mentally toughen yourself up and, you know, hopefully prepares me for anything down the track.”

“Tonight just wasn’t my night and I didn't swim the way that I wanted to. I can throw out all these excuses but at the end of the day, I just haven’t done the work I would have usually done with my prep, and that shows in my swimming and in my training, so I’m just using this year to find my feet and get myself back.

Day 2 of the seven-day event begins with heats at 11am local time (11:30am AEST) and finals commence at 7:30pm local time (8pm AEST), with all the action live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now.

Image credit: Delly Carr / Swimming Australia

“I'm a competitor. I love competing. I'm not going to turn down an opportunity to get up and race, even if it is late at night. But, yeah, you know, I love backstroke, and I love racing these girls, especially Mollie (O'Callaghan), we have a good time in the marshalling room. So it was nice to have that opportunity and to also ease some of the pressure by qualifying.”

Day 1 also featured the following events.

Women’s 100m Butterfly

Alex Perkins has become Australia’s premier female butterflyer following the retirement of decorated teammate Emma McKeon.

Alex celebrated the first day of this meet with a double PB – first in the heats (56.78) and then a 56.42 to win the final.

It was a huge performance for Alex, making her the third-fastest Australian of all-time in the event behind only McKeon (55.72) and Jessicah Schipper (56.23).

Rackley’s Lily Price continued her progression into the senior ranks with 57.82 ensuring the Dolphins will have two entrants in this event come World Championships in Singapore.

Alex said: “I’m really happy with the PB in the morning and the second PB at night. Those times were a long time coming and I’ve been working really hard for, so it's really nice when it comes together when it matters. I think coming off my first Olympics and building that self belief, working out how to just race my own race a bit more and a change in coach has been really, really good and fresh."

“Emma’s been at the forefront of this event (100m butterfly) for so long and she’s just so talented, and an amazing role model. It’s sad she’s not here to race anymore, but hopefully we can bring the 100m fly for Australia at the next big meets."

Lily added: “I went to short course last year but this is my first long course Australian team. It feels really exciting. Short course is a great achievement but the Olympics are long course, so everyone looks to make a long course team. So I’m really happy.”

Men’s 400m Freestyle

Sam Short sent a clear message that he’s almost back to his world championship best, coming close to the time that won him gold at the 2023 meet.

Sam swam a 3:41.03, not far off the 3:40.68 which gave him the 2023 title and it was also the second-fastest time by any man this year, behind German world record holder Lukas Martens (3:39.96, the record set in April).

Elijah Winnington, the Paris Olympic silver medallist and 2022 world champion, was second with a 3:43.99 while Benjamin Goedemans (3:45.57) was also under the qualifying time.

Women’s 200m Individual Medley

Ella Ramsay was the only woman under the qualifying time in the 200m IM heats but then was joined by Tara Kinder in the final to both touch the wall under qualifying time.

Ella’s 2:09.21 made her the first swimmer from the new-look Griffith University club - now with Mel Marshall as head coach – qualify for Worlds in an event that would typically be dominated by Kaylee McKeown.

Image credit: Delly Carr / Swimming Australia

Kaylee chose not to enter the event at this meet and in her absence Tara Kinder posted a qualifier 2:10.42 to book her ticket to the Lion City, her first senior long course team.

The burgeoning rivalry between Ella Ramsay and Tara will be on full display at this meet with the pair set to clash again in tomorrow’s 100m breaststroke with the pair going head-to-head in the first event of the morning.

Women’s 400m Freestyle

With godmother Dawn Fraser looking on, Lani Pallister smoked to victory in the 400m – her 3:59.72 being waved on by new coach Dean Boxall pacing the side of the pool.

Lani swum three seconds quicker than the time she clocked at April’s national titles, posting a huge PB to easily go under the qualifying time while St Peters teammate Jamie Perkins was also impressive in 4:04.03.

Lani said: “I think I've been questioning for the past week whether I had sub four in the bank. Dean (Boxall) said it wasn't about cracking 4min it was just about executing the race plan. I could see him and my mum on the last 50m pushing me and I did not want to kick my legs whatsoever, but that's all he's been hounding into me for the past 10 weeks since being at St Peters.”

“Moving to St Peters was more about having a group of distance swimmers to train with. Swimmers like Jamie (Perkins) who was in the Olympic final last year for the 400m (freestyle), Elijah Winnington who medalled last year, Ben Goedemans has now cracked 15 minutes (in the 1500m freestyle) … so there’s a nice group that do distance.

“So for me, it was just about having someone to chase up and down and challenge me every day, as Jamie does, and having a group of people that make me happy, and I think that's been the biggest difference. Is I'm just thrilled going into the pool every day and just having 21 friends on pool deck with me.

“I've seen a different side of Dean that I never saw as an outside athlete before, and you guys see how passionate he is when we're racing. But I think what we have at St Peter's is something really special, and I'm really lucky that I get to be a part of that now. I saw a quote once saying that ‘water carries energy’ and the energy that comes out of that St Peter's pool is electrifying.”

Jamie added: “Summer’s (world record) time is pretty inspiring. I mean for what Katie (Ledecky) has done over the past over a decade now is incredible. To see someone else stepping up and doing that is good for us, to show that it's possible.”

“First job is to make the team. You never know what’s going to happen and there’s so many obstacles to overcome during a prep. So step one’s done now and we have five weeks until Singapore.”