Zhao wins Australian Championship

GM Zong Yuan Zhao has one his first Australian Championship with a phenomenal 10/11. This is a record score in this event, tying the mark previously set by GM Daryl Johansen. He scored 9 wins and 2 draws (to GM Gawain Jones and FM Vladimir Smirnov), while playing every player who finished in the top 10. He had a performance rating of 2772, which moves his FIDE rating close to the 2600 mark.
In second place was IM George Xie on 9/11, achieving a GM norm. In fact he scored the norm as soon as the round 11 pairings were officially announced, as his opponent Stephen Solomon had a high enough rating to lift the average rating of opponents for George above 2380. This was a good thing as Xie repeated a line that brought him success against IM Gary Lane in round 9, but against Solomon it had the opposite result.
GM Gawain Jones took outright third on 7.5/11 after defeating Canberra junior Yi Yuan. This left Yi back on 50% (5.5) but as in any swiss, there are 50%'s and there are 50%'s. In Yi's case he played 4 IM's and a GM and performed at 160 points above his rating.
The best performed Canberra player however was Junta Ikeda. He went very close to his first IM norm, but a last round draw with GM Daryl Johansen still left on 6/11 (+5=2-4) and a performance rating of 2400.
And another ex-Canberra player also had reason to celebrate. FM Vladimir Smirnov scored his second IM norm (from his first 10 rounds) and finished in a tie for 5th with 6.5/11