Sienna Toohey has qualified for the Commonwealth Games, making her difficult journey across the country worth it.
The 17-year-old backed up her win at April’s Australian Open by beating Ella Ramsay to the wall in the 100m breaststroke on the second night of the Australian Swimming Trials in Sydney.
Toohey won in 1:05.97, the third fastest time ever recorded by an Australian woman, with fastest qualifier Ramsay second in 1:06.70, which is outside the automatic qualifying time.
Ramsay, an Olympic and world championships silver medallist in the 4x100m medley relay, already qualified for next month’s Games in Glasgow in the 200m individual medley and is likely to be part of the 100m breaststroke in Scotland.
But she was pipped by rising star Toohey, who has now beaten Ramsay at a third straight major national meet, adding her 2026 wins to victory at last year’s world championship trials.
Sienna Toohey was elated to break the 1:06 barrier for the first time. (Getty Images: Matt King)
Hailing from Albury in Western Australia, the teenager has moved across the country to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.
“My older brother has come up for uni in Canberra,” she told Channel Nine.
“It’s hard not seeing my friends for quite some time. I don’t have a lot of friends in Canberra, but that just made it all worth it.”
Toohey said she had spoken to coach Shannon Rollason before the race about hitting 1:06 for the first time, with Rollason backing her to become the fourth Australian woman (after Leisel Jones, Sarah Katsoulis and Chelsea Hodges) to go under that barrier.
When Toohey saw her time, the look on her face — mouth agape and eyes wide — suggested it still came as a bit of a shock.
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