FLIPPERS AIM FOR MORE GOLD AT YOUTH OLYMPICS
Sydney, January 17th: Australian swimmers are looking to add more gold to the medal tally on night three of the Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF) at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre tonight. Brooke Hanson reports...
After two strong nights of competition the two Australian teams have won seven gold and twenty-three medals between them.
Tonight they have a chance of winning a possible eight gold medals on offer at the AYOF but will have tough competition from fastest qualifiers Canada and Japan.
This morning the Australian Flippers had another consistent heats session but night three of the AYOF swimming finals will be Australia's toughest nights in the pool.
Today's standout swims started with the women's 400 metres freestyle with only 0.86 of a second separating the first three qualifiers for tonight's final.
Japan's Kaori Shirai (4.19.22) has qualified fastest in front of Australian training partners Katie Goldman (4.19.33) and Kelly Marquenie (4.19.89).
Marquenie the silver medallist in the 100m ad 200m freestyle and relay gold medallist in the 4x200m freestyle swam another personal best time in this morning's heats.
Goldman, the gold medallist in the 200m freestyle on night one, silver medallist in the 400m individual medley and a member of the 4x200m gold medal winning relay last night wants to add another gold to her collection.
"It was a comfortable swim this morning and I definitely want to go faster tonight, another gold medal would be great", Goldman said.
"I'm really enjoying the Youth Olympic festival it's a lot of fun and a great learning experience for me."
The men's 400m freestyle will see the battle of five countries with Australia, China, Canada, Japan and New Zealand all aiming for the gold medal.
Australian Dylan Wyatt (4.01.08) who anchored the gold medal winning 4x200m freestyle relay last night has qualified first. Wyatt won't have it all his own way with just three seconds separating the field this morning.
Other Aussies looking at a podium finish are Justin James (4.04.20) gold medallist in the 200m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay and Mitchell Larkin (4.04.33) silver medallist in the 400m individual medley.
In the men's 100m butterfly heats Luke Stirton (55.74) the bronze medallist in the 200m butterfly took a second off his personal best time to qualify second behind Japan's Yusuke Yasue (55.40) with Australia's Alex Gohari (56.04) qualifying third, Phillip Butcher (56.05) fourth and Dylan Wyatt (58.28) seventh.
After last night's action packed gold medal relay swims tonight's relays are set to be just as exciting with the women's and men's 4x100m freestyle relay gold medals up for grabs.
Australians featuring in tonight's finals starting at 6pm include:
Women's 400m Freestyle: Katie Goldman, Kelly Marquenie, Aleysha Tokai, Jessica Ashwood
Men's 400m Freestyle: Dylan Wyatt, Justin James, Mitchell Larkin
Women's 100m Butterfly: Megan Mackay, Madeleine Van Hunnik, Nicole Mee, Phoebe Cater
Men's 100m Butterfly: Luke Stirton, Alex Gohari, Phillip Butcher, Dylan Wyatt
Women's 200m Backstroke: Caitlin Sinclair, Whitney Ireland, Rachael Gorrie
Men's 200m backstroke: Ben Edmonds, Andrew Read
Women's 4x100m Freestyle Relay: Australia Green and Australia Gold
Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay: Australia Gold and Australia Green
Medal Tally After Day 2 Finals
Gold Silver Bronze Total
Australia Gold 4 6 4 14
Canada 2 5 3 10
Japan 5 2 2 9
Australia Green 3 2 4 9