Brisbane Lifeguard Bailey Lello Sinks Zac Stubblety-Cook’s 200 Breaststroke Reign at Australian Open
Former Olympic and world champion Zac Stubblety-Cook has suffered his first defeat in the 200m breaststroke in an Australian pool in eight years – his reign coming to an end at the hands of his former training partner Bailey Lello, now training at St Peters Western, under Dean Boxall.
A brave Lello , led the entire race, staving off Stubblety-Cook’s trademark finishing burst which has seen him overpower almost every field he has taken on at home and abroad, since bursting onto the world stage after the 2018 Commonwealth Games – in the first major upset of the three-day meet.
The 22-year-old lifeguard at Chandler’s Brisbane Aquatic Centre, valiantly hanging on over the closing stages to clock his personal best time of 2:09.79 (the seventh fastest by and Australian) and under 2.10.00 for the first time; Stubblety-Cook, who holds the Australian record at 2:05.95 touching second n 2:10.03 and IM specialist Will Petric (Nunawading, VIC) an encouraging third in 2:11.37 – a swim that will continue to pay dividends in his IM pursuits.
Over the past few weeks coach Boxall, who Lello joined at St Peters Western in 2025 has been “working on some new things”, the 22-year-old admitting: “I think they seem to be working out.”
“I went into this morning with the goal of having a good heat swim and I didn’t really think much past that so hitting (2:10.83) I didn’t really have much pressure on myself coming into tonight’s final. I was able to swim nice and free,” said Lello.
“I had (actually) trained with Zac through 2023 and 2024 (under Vince Raleigh at Chandler) so I spent a lot of time swimming next to him and a lot of time behind him, so it’s nice to get one in front of him.”
Stubblety-Cook has not been beaten in the 200m breaststroke in an Australian pool since April 2018.
At those Games on the Gold Coast, the boy who would go on to conquer the world, finished sixth in the final.
But since that event, the 2021 Olympic champion, has maintained a spectacular dominant winning streak on home soil in his signature event, including:
The 2021 Australian Olympic Trials: He won the 200m breaststroke in a then-Australian record of 2:06.28.
The 2022 Australian Championships, where he broke the World Record in Adelaide with a time of 2:05.95, becoming the first man to break the 2:06 barrier.
The 2024 Australian Championships where he successfully defended his National titles in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke.
And the 2025 Australian Trials when he defeated the Australian Open champion Lello, but later withdrew from the Singapore World Championships.
While he has faced losses internationally—most notably taking silver behind China’s Qin Haiyang at the 2023 World Championships and Léon Marchand at the Paris 2024 Olympics—he had been undefeated in Australia for eight years.
https://liveresults.swimming.org.au/sal/2026AusOpen/
