Larkin and Seebohm headline short course record assault

  
Swimming Australia, November 27, 2015: The record books will once again be under siege when the cream of Australia’s swimmers line up for what is expected to be a thrilling third night of finals at the Hancock Prospecting Australian Short Course Championships at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre.

There was no holding back in this morning’s heats with some eye-catching hit outs from Mitch Larkin, Emily Seebohm, Cate Campbell, Cameron McEvoy, Emma McKeon and Jessica Ashwood leading the way.

Larkin, who broke the Australian record in the 50m backstroke last night, looked very much at ease as he unleashed all his silky smooth skills to clock 1:48.78 – with the World (1:46.11), Commonwealth (1:47.08) and Australian (1:47.72) marks all well within his reach.

Seebohm, only a touch outside the world record in the 200m backstroke last night qualified fastest in two events this morning – the 100m individual medley in 58.22 and the 100m backstroke in 56.49.

But the dual world backstroke champion has withdrawn from the medley to put all her eggs in the backstroke basket where she holds the Commonwealth, Australian and Australian All-Comers records at 55.31 and 55.47.

Seebohm’s FINA World Short Course nemesis from Doha last year, Hungarian Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu, holds the world record at 55.03.

Last night’s 100m freestyle winner, Cate Campbell was also back in the pool this morning and is the fastest qualifier in the 50m freestyle in 24.02 ahead of sister Bronte 24.23, Emma McKeon (24.47) and Mel Wright (24.57).

McKeon will also concentrate on the 100m butterfly (57.35) alongside Madeline Groves (57.77) and Olympian Alicia Coutts (58.26) after withdrawing from the 400m freestyle, where she had qualified third fastest to 800and 1500m winner Jessica Ashwood.

Meanwhile Melbourne Vicentre’s Monique Murphy has picked up her first Short Course National title with a win in the women’s 400m Multi Class freestyle final.

Murphy got the better of Nelson Bay’s Taylor Corry (4:42.23 1018 FINA points) and the Sunshine Coast’s Lakeisha Patterson (4:55.21 915 FINA points) to grab the gold in a time of 4:35.88 for an impressive 1024 FINA points.

In the corresponding men’s event, Liam Schulter from Kawana Waters grabbed the gold in 4:10.37 (1100 FINA points) relegating Braedan Jason to the silver medal position (4:07.82 1086 FINA points) and Brenden Hall to bronze (4:07.88 1032 FINA points).

In other events, World Championship silver medallist from the 100m freestyle Cameron McEvoy this morning stamped his authority on the men’s 200m freestyle heats, finishing two seconds clear of the field in a new All comers record time of 1:42.24.

The battle for bragging rights will be on tonight with a hotly contested field that includes McEvoy’s bronze medal winning 4x200m freestyle teammates from Kazan, Dan Smith (1:44.89), Thomas Fraser-Holmes (1:44.90), Kurt Herzog (1:45.14) and David McKeon (1:47.26).

After starting the competition with a bang, Jess Ashwood will tonight be looking for her third National Short Course title for 2015 when she takes on the final of the women’s 400m freestyle.

Ashwood, who set a new Australian and All comers record on night one in the 1500m freestyle (15:43.83), then a new personal best in the 800m on night two (8:13.63) will tonight swim from lane four as the favourite to take out the trifecta. The Chandler based swimmer clocked a 4:03.20 from the heats to finish almost three seconds clear of her closest competitor Bronte Barratt (4:06.03) with Perth City swimmer Brianna Throssell (4:06.75) also in the mix for a medal.

Last night’s 100m breaststroke winner Georgia Bohl (2:22.83) is the second fastest qualifier in the 200m breaststroke behind Commonwealth Games gold medallist Taylor McKeown (2:22.69); Kenneth To (1:56.73) heads the finalists in the 200m individual medley as does Jake Packard (58.23) in the 100m breaststroke.

The Multi-Class heats saw last night’s winner Mitchell Kilduff (59.60) top the qualifiers in the men’s 100m butterfly and Taylor Corry in the women’s in 1:10.95 while Sean Russo is the fastest qualifier in the men’s 100m backstroke in 59.76) and world champion Ellie Cole (1:10.29) in the women’s.

Finals will commence from 6:00pm AEDST.

LIVE STREAMING will be available via the Australian Swim Team YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtEJfnAJzdU

Issued on behalf of Swimming Australia by
Ian Hanson| Media Manager

Ian Hanson| Media Manager Triathlon Australia Managing Director
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