Seebohm and Larkin shine as Aussies secure seven medal haul
Swimming Australia, October 29, 2015: The Australian Dolphins shined on the first night of finals at the FINA World Cup in Tokyo with the swimmers picking up an impressive haul of seven medals including four gold and three bronze.
The formidable world champion backstroke duo of Emily Seebohm and Mitch Larkin stole the show as they continued their run of successes, narrowly missing Australian and Commonwealth records to take home three gold medals between them from the night.
Seebohm began by adding to her unbeaten record in the 50m back and then returning not long after to grab gold in the women’s 200m backstroke final.
The dual world champion comfortably took top spot in the 50 back with a time of 27.49, just 0.02 of a second outside the Australian and Commonwealth record in the event and with the national short course championships just weeks away Seebohm is showing promising signs for the season ahead. The USA’s Natalie Coughlin (28.25) secured second place with Japan’s Miyuki Takemura (28.33) rounding out the top three.
Then in the 200m back Seebohm left the field to play catch up, storming to the wall two seconds ahead of her closest rival Katinka Hosszu (2:10.11) in an impressive time of 2:08.08. Third place went to Natsumi Sakai in 2:10.73 while Victorian Belinda Hocking announced her return to the world stage with a 2:12.37 for fourth place.
Seebohm has now taken her World Cup gold medal tally to 10 from six meets, with the 100m backstroke tomorrow and the Doha and Dubai meets to come, saying the World Cup meets were all about building confidence
"For me it's all about focusing on what I need to do, my race plans," Seebohm said at the Tatsumi International Swimming Centre.
"It's good coming to these meetings because I have no coach, there's no team, there's no massage, it's all about doing it on your own, and I think when you can produce times like that, it really gives you more confidence, and that's all you need for a win.
"It's just a bit of confidence, I've had so much of it this year. I tend not to look at anyone else, I look at myself, and that's how I get the best out of myself."
Dual world champion Larkin wasted no time in re-asserting his authority on the backstroke world in his first swim back since taking Kazan by storm in August – nudging his world championship times – in his 2015 World Cup debut – despite some bad luck signs.
Larkin charged to victory in the 100m backstroke, clocking another impressive time of 52.48, just 0.11 of a second outside the Australian and Commonwealth record in the event, his 52.37 he clocked in the relay lead off in the Kazan heats and 0.08 outside his Kazan winning time.
Larkin was too quick for Japan’s London Olympic bronze medallist Ryosuke Irie (53.27) and the USA’s established world championship swimmer David Plummer (53.39) who finished second and third.
He had visited temples in Tokyo on Tuesday, and had joked at that day's official press conference how they had drawn out fortune papers that indicated both he ad Seebohm were about to suffer bad luck.
"We got the bad luck fortune paper there, then I lost a pair of fins this morning, and I thought it was coming true," said Larkin, who had about three weeks off after the worlds, and who has had eight weeks back in the pool.
"I picked up quite quickly from where I left off in Kazan. I came here hoping to swim sub-53, but I didn't realise I would go quite so quick.
“It sets a benchmark for where I am now, and hopefully I'll move on from that in the next six months for the Rio Olympics."
The Michael Bohl trained Larkin has put a stranglehold on the 100m backstroke this year clocking:
52.37 (4x100m medley relay heat, World Champs Kazan)
52.38 (100m backstroke semi-final, World Champs Kazan)
52.40 (100m backstroke final, World Champs Kazan)
52.41 (4x100m medley relay final, World Champs Kazan)
52.48 (100m backstroke final, Tokyo World Cup)
52.99 (100m backstroke heat, Tokyo World Cup)
Fellow Australians Ashley Delaney (54.41) and Joshua Beaver (55.06) finished in fifth and seventh place respectively.
The Aussies fourth gold medal of the night went to a fast finishing Melanie Wright who took the win at the wall in the women’s 50m freestyle final. Wright touched first in a time of 24.92 to relegate Miki Uchida to silver in 24.95 with Rikako Ikee third in 25.05.
Her Southport (QLD) club mate, rising star and Youth Olympian Blake Jones then added a bronze medal to the tally, stopping the clock at 49.79 in the men’s 100m freestyle and joining Katsumi Nakamura (49.17) and Shinri Shioura (49.33) on the medal dais.
Fellow Australian Alex Graham was eighth overall in 50.32.
The University of Sunshine Coast (USC) swimmer Leah Neale also bagged a bronze for her efforts in the women’s 200m freestyle. Neale took third place in 1:58.21 behind Katinka Hosszu (1:56.67) and Zsuzsanna Jakabos (1:58.11).
Neale then backed up to finish in fifth place overall in the women’s 800m freestyle final.
The women’s 100m breaststroke provided our final medal of the evening with Southport’s Leiston Pickett taking third place on the podium in 1:07.96. The gold went to Molly Hannis (1:07.71) with Runa Imai second in 1:07.87.
World Championship representative Taylor McKeown (1:08.01) was fourth overall in the women’s 100m breaststroke and then went on to finish sixth in the 200m individual medley.
Other results from the evening saw USC’s Kazan World Championship finalist Jake Packard and Southport’s Chris Wright narrowly miss a medal in their respective events with Packard finishing fourth in the men’s 50m breaststroke (28.11) and Wright fourth in the 50m butterfly (24.03) and fifth in the 200m butterfly (1:57.87) finals.
Queensland’s Jess Hobbin was fifth in the 100m butterfly (1:00.19) and Victorian Travis Mahoney was fifth in the 400m individual medley (4:21.25), while Jayden Hadler took sixth place overall in the men’s 50m butterfly (24.17).
The competition will continue today at the Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Centre.
For full results go to www.omegatiming.com
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