Dolphins lap up Townsville sunshine in countdown to World Championships
Swimming Australia, June 19, 2015: Middle distance freestyle big guns led by two-time Olympic gold medallist Grant Hackett and emerging stars Mack Horton and David McKeon will face off in the 400m freestyle final on the opening night of the Swimming Australia Grand Prix 2 in Townsville tonight.
Australia’s Dolphins preparing for the FINA World Championships in Kazan and the IPC World Championships in Glasgow have been joined in the balmy Far North Queensland winter by swimmers from New Zealand, China and Korea racing at the Long Tan Memorial pool.
It is the final domestic hit out as the teams countdown to their respective major competitions for 2015 and look towards Rio in 2016.
Hackett, at 35, will make his return to the Dolphins team for the first time since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Kazan will be the former world record holder’s sixth world championship campaign as he prepares to spearhead Australia’s 4x200m freestyle relay team for Russia.
London Olympian, McKeon, 22, who will contest both the 200m and 400m freestyle in Kazan was the fastest qualifier as the trio cruised through this morning’s heats.
McKeon clocked a time of 3:55.47 to win the first of two heats with Horton, 19, who will race both the 400 and 1500m in Kazan, winning heat two in 3:55.62 from Hackett (3:55.95).
In the women’s events, rising star Madison Wilson (2:13.04), who snuck onto the Commonwealth Games team in 2014, will go in as the favourite in the 200m backstroke final after clocking a heat time almost two seconds clear of her closest competitor.
World Championship representative Wilson, got the better of her Dolphins teammate Emily Seebohm (2:15.16), while Korean swimmer Dalin Lee, will move through in third place, just behind Seebohm in 2:15.24.
In the freestyle events it was Chandler swimmer Jessica Ashwood who surprised in the heats of the women’s 200m freestyle taking the top spot through to the finals in a time of 1:59.94. Ashwood was the only swimmer to go sub-two-minutes with Emma McKeon qualifying second in 2:00.06 and Bronte Barratt third in 2:00.51.
The IPC team started their Grand Prix campaign in style with the women’s 50m freestyle multi-class heats setting the standard early. Paralympian Ellie Cole will head through to the final as hot favourite after claiming 968 points in a time of 29.36 – just 0.1 off her personal best. The battle for bragging rights will be on tonight with Taylor Corry ranked second in 28.44 (894 points) and Tiffany Thomas Kane in third, 36.35 (875 points).
Here are the top three qualifiers through to finals tonight…
Women’s 100m Butterfly
1 Emma McKeon, 21, St Peters Western QLD, 58.21
2 Alicia Coutts, 27, Redlands QLD, 58.77
3. Sehyeon An, 19, Korea, 59.91
4 Madeline Groves, 20, St Peters Western QLD, 1:00.13
Women’s 200m Individual Medley
1 Alicia Coutts, 27, Redlands QLD, 2:15.29
2 Keryn McMaster, 21, Waterworx QLD, 2:16.87
3 Tessa Wallace, 21, Pelican Waters Caloundra QLD, 2:17.10
Women’s 100m Breaststroke
1 Georgia Bohl, 18 Chandler QLD, 1:09.01
2 Jessica Hansen, 19, Nunawading VIC, 1:09.27
3 Tessa Wallace, 21, Pelican Waters Caloundra QLD, 1:13.26
Men’s 400m Individual Medley
1 Thomas Fraser-Holmes, 23, Miami QLD, 4:23.10
2 Nathan Capp, 22, New Zealand, 4:27.27
3 Kazimir Boskovic, 19, Sydney University NSW, 4:27.50
Men’s 100m Freestyle
1 Kenneth To, 22, Trinity Grammar NSW, 49.57
2 Cameron McEvoy, 21, Bond QLD, 49.88
3 Will Copeland, 29 Ravenswood NSW, 50.22
Men’s 100m Backstroke
1 Mitch Larkin, 21, St Peters Western QLD, 54.63
2 Ben Treffers, 23, Burley Griffin NSW, 56.32
3 Joshua Beaver, 22, Nunawading VIC, 56.57
Men’s 200m Breaststroke
1 George Schroder, 19, New Zealand, 2:18.76
2 Thomas Fraser-Holmes, 23, Miami QLD, 2:19.67
3 Jared Gilliland, 20, Brothers QLD, 2:20.93
Men’s 200m Butterfly
1 Shaun Burnett, 24, New Zealand, 2:01.60
2 Grant Irvine, 24, St Peters Western, 2:02.89
3 Keiran Qaium, 22, Sydney University NSW
Men’s 400m freestyle multi-class heats
1 Brenden Hall (S9), 4:17.72 (912 points)
2 Logan Powell (S9), 4:34.80 (752 points)
3 Braedan Jason (S13), 4:19.51 (748 points)
Women’s 100m butterfly multi-class heats
1 Madeleine Scott (S9), 1:12.14 (792 points)
2 Maddison Elliott (S8), 1:19.04 (671 points)
3 Monique Murphy (S10), 1:13.08 (670 points)
Women’s 200m IM multi-class heats
1 Tiffany Thomas-Kane (SM6), 3:16.54 (821 points)
2 Teigan Van Roosmalen (SM13), 2:40.88 (808 points)
3 Taylor Corry (SM14), 2:38.39 (754 points)
Men’s 200m backstroke multi-class heats
1 Michael Anderson (S10), 1:03.74 (835 points)
2 Logan Powell (S9), 1:07.66 (760 points)
3 Sean Russo (S13), 1:02.79 (747 points)
Women’s 100m breaststroke multi-class heats
1 Madeleine Scott (SB9), 1:24.05 (767 points)
2 Teigan Van Roosmalen (SB13), 1:24.38 (763 points)
3 Tanya Huebner (SB6), 1:45.20 (748 points)
Women’s 200m freestyle multi-class heats
1 Lakeisha Patterson (S8), 2:29.95 (834 points)
2 Taylor Corry (S14), 2:19.32 (749 points)
Information and results can be found at www.swimming.org.au
Issued on behalf of Swimming Australia by
Ian Hanson| Media Manager
Ian Hanson| Media Manager Triathlon Australia Managing Director
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