McKeon ready to mix it with big boys Powerhouse: David McKeon sent a message in the 400m. Little more than a year ago, David McKeon was the new boy on the Australian swimming scene, bursting from obscurity to win the 400 metres freestyle national title and secure a berth on the London Olympic team. In contrast, McKeon came into the opening night of the national titles with the intention of declaring himself a contender at this year's world championships in Barcelona. He achieved that when he notched the second-fastest time of the year to defend his title in three minutes, 43.71 seconds, a time that is behind only that of Chinese superstar Sun Yang (3.42.96). It was a drop of almost three seconds from his previous personal best and, with Beijing gold medallist and London silver medallist Park Tae-Hwan skipping Barcelona, has McKeon eyeing a medal at the world titles. He said he had worked hard to build his strength since London. On Friday night, McKeon became first to qualify for the world championships team, finishing more than two seconds ahead of Jordan Harrison, who qualified for his first long-course national team in 3.45.85. The final was without one of the pre-meeting favourites, Thomas Fraser-Holmes, who was disqualified when he false-started in his morning heat, bringing back memories of Ian Thorpe's tumble in the corresponding race in 2004. Harrison said he realised his training partner's misfortune had opened an opportunity to snare a berth on the team, which he did by substantially dropping his personal best time and edging out London Olympian Ryan Napoleon (3.46.26.) "I was so shocked because he [Fraser-Holmes] never breaks in training ... it was just such a shame to see," Harrison said. As bad as I felt for Tom I knew he was faster than me so seeing him out of the competition really boosted my mindset, and I just went fully more aggressive knowing that I could have a shot of making the team. Bronte Barratt added a third 400m freestyle national title to her CV when she comprehensively beat long-time rival Kylie Palmer. Barratt won in 4.03.52, the fastest time in the year so far. Palmer also secured her place on the team by finishing second in 4.06.00. Barratt said she had been surprised by the time but winning an Olympic bronze in the 200m freestyle last year had instilled new confidence into her. Olympic silver medallist Christian Sprenger has now set the three fastest times of the year, the 27-year-old the top qualifier for Saturday night's 100m breaststroke final with 59.05s. He said he would look to edge towards Cameron van de Burgh's world record of 58.46s, which the South African swam to beat Sprenger in London last year. When asked if he felt he had developed into a stronger swimmer since London, Sprenger said: "I finally worked out how to swim breaststroke, I think." London Olympic bronze medallist Alicia Coutts is the fastest qualifier for Saturday night's 100m butterfly final, winning her semi-final in 57.93s. Meanwhile, Taylor Corry (S14) won the national title in the multi-class 100m backstroke. Ellie Cole (S9), who won four gold medals at the London Paralympics, won silver and Maddison Elliott (S8) bronze. In the men's race, Grant Patterson (S3) won with Michael Anderson (S10) taking silver and Daniel Fox (S14) bronze.