Matthew Sates earns Commonwealth Games spot at SA Swimming Championships

Sates, 18, won the 200m freestyle title in 1:46.15 to secure his place in Birmingham and also earn a spot in June's World Championships in Budapest.

"It was a good one. It's my first gala long course since the Olympics, so I'm still getting used to it, but the more racing I do, the faster I'll get," said Sates.

Sates admitted to struggling with a shoulder injury, which kept him out of the 400m individual medley, but it didn't stop the teenager.

"I can't do lots of butterfly. Even the freestyle is a little bit hard so to get the qualifying time, I can't complain," he said.

"It's quite sore so I have to push through to get some qualifying times and then do rehab and everything after this meet."

Meanwhile, Olympic semi-finalist Emma Chelius narrowly missed out on Commonwealth Games qualification in the 50m freestyle by four-hundredths of a second, claiming the title in 25.08 ahead of Erin Gallagher (25.39).

"I felt really good. It's definitely the fastest I've been since Tokyo so that's always good to come back off quite an exceptional year last year and manage to get so close to that qualifying time," said Chelius.

"I'm going to lead off the 4x50m relay tomorrow so hopefully, I'll have one more shot at that qualifying time. But with the 50, everything just has to come together perfectly - every minute detail. That's what really counts. So, to be close to the qualifying time is obviously frustrating, but I'm hoping it comes together tomorrow."

In the men's 100m breaststroke, Brenden Crawford got the better of Olympian Michael Houlie, winning in a time of 1:01.00 as Houlie grabbed second in 1:01.56.

Rebecca Meder took top honours in the 100m backstroke in 1:02.55 to add to the 400m individual medley title.

The 2022 Commonwealth Games