RECORD BREAKING START FOR DOLPHINS IN GUAM

GUAM, January 8, 2009: Australian swimmers have had a record breaking start to the 2009 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships which began at the Leo Palace Resort Aquatic Centre here today.

Queensland pair Ellen Fullerton and Ryan Napoleon both posted meet records in their respective heats of the 200 metres freestyle.

But it wasn't without some anxious moments. Fullerton had to swim in a specially convened heat with team mate Ellese Zalewski after the pair were inadvertently left out of their scheduled heat.

After Australian head coach Alan Thompson intervened the pair were allowed to swim together with Fullerton clocking a personal best time of 1:59.32 and Zalewski 2:02.41 and both will line up in tonight's final (scheduled to start at 5.30pm AEDST).

Fullerton's time was 0.17secs quicker than American Dagny Knutson who had earlier swum 1:59.49 - breaking Australian Amelia Evatt-Davey's 2007 meet record time of 2:00.08.

The 16-year-old Anglican All Saints student from the Gold Coast also broke Olympic relay gold medallist Bronte Barratt's Australian Age record of  1:59.38.

Napoleon, the Junior Commonwealth Games champion from 2008, posted an encouraging l:48.94 to eclipse the 2007 Meet record set by Australia's Nic Donald, which stood at 1:49.79.

Other Australian finalists are: Tommaso D'Orsogna (200m freestyle;1:50.25); Grace Loh (1:02.44) and Bridgett-Rose Taylor (1:03.15) in the women's 100m backstroke; Alex Kelshaw (58.40) men's 100m backstroke; Amy Smith (2:12.74) and Jessica Ash (2:13.69) in the women's 200m butterfly and Lachlan Staples (1:59.54) and Declan Potts (2:01.14) in the men's 200m butterfly.