Aussie swimmer McEvoy creates history with sprint 'triple crown'

Australia's latest swimming sensation Cameron McEvoy has completed a perfect Olympic qualifying meet performance winning the 50 metres freestyle event to go with his victories in the 100 and 200 metres freestyle.

On the second last day of the Australian Swimming Championships, McEvoy on Wednesday night did what no Australian has done before by completing the 50-100-200 sprint "triple crown". He clocked the fastest time of the night with a 21.44 seconds in the 50m event to finish ahead of second-placed Matthew Abood, reports Xinhua.

Abood's time of 22.08 was good enough to book a spot on the plane to Rio, but 2012 Olympic silver medallist James Magnussen continued his disappointing form; he finished third and yet again missed out on an individual 2016 berth. He will travel to Rio purely as a relay swimmer.

Mitch Larkin backed up his performance in the men's 200m backstroke by blitzing the field in the 50m event as well, while expectation proved too much for Emily Seebohm who finished second in the women's 200m backstroke.

Seebohm, current world champion, finished just 0.1 second behind Belinda Hocking, but both women will head to the Olympic Games having swum the world's two fastest times in the event so far in 2016.

Earlier, Jess Ashwood breezed to an Olympic qualifying time of 8:18:42 in the women's 800m freestyle, while sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell both won their respective semi-finals in the women's 50m freestyle event.